The Ketchum Boys
by angelcutepie
Summary: Dawn decides to transform from one of the boys into a girl in order to get a certain Ketchum Boys' attention. And just when she decides to prove to "him" that she's girlfriend material, she realizes that her role of girl friend to Ash may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way overboard...
1. Start of a New Summer

**Author's Notes: :D Yes, I have _another_ story xD. You're probably like "o_O Wth? Four stories?' but no worries, because I know how to balance out my stories :) Plus, I already have six chapters of this story done and working on chapter seven. So I'm good with that :)**

**Anyways, this will be a cute, romance story that takes place in the summer...Summer Love ^_^ and it's almost Spring (Next Tuesday to be exact) so I decided what the heck, I'll go ahead and put it up :D. Now, before you read the story I want to give you a warning, so you can turn back now if you want. There will be Cavaliershipping, Egoshipping, a teeney tiney bit of Pokeshipping, one or two hints of Ikarishipping, some Contestshipping, some mentioning of Oldrivalshipping, and plenty - and I mean _PLENTY_- of _PEARLSHIPPING!_ Also, another heads up: the first few chapters will SEEM LIKE the story is not Pearlshipping but it is!...so keep that in mind while reading :p and don't flip...'cause whoever does is getting a long, long, bright, colorful PM from me! So don't say I didn't warn you :)**

**Full Summary: This Summer, Dawn decides to change from one of the boys to a dainty girl so she can get a certain "Ketchum Boy" to notice her. And her tricks seem to be working because he's starting to take interest in her and act more friendly towards her and not in a brother type of way...But just as she decides to prove to "him" that she's_ girlfriend_ material, she realizes that her role of _girl_ _friend_ to Ash may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way over board...**

**This story is told in Dawn's POV..**

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><p><span>Start of a New Summer<span>

Gary smiled down at me, his dark brown hair glinting under the sun. His hair swayed back and forth from the wind. S-E-X-Y! He shouted over the noise of the boat motor and the wind, "Dawn when we're old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend." He didn't even care that the other boys could hear him.

I smiled. "Oh, yes!" I exclaimed, because I was nothing if not coy. "When will be old enough?"

His black eyes seemed to shine on his tanned face. Gosh, he was so cute! He answered me while smiling. Or at least I thought he answered me. I mean, his lips moved but nothing came out. Weird much?

"What did you say? I didn't hear you." Ugh. I sure do know how to draw out a romantic moment. But if I didn't hear the guy, I didn't hear him. Not my fault.

He said something to me again, but I still couldn't hear him. I wonder why? The boat motor and the wind hadn't gotten any louder. Maybe he was mouthing words, pretending to say something sweet I couldn't understand. All boys were like that. He had just been teasing me all along.

"You ass!" I yanked myself up straight so I was sitting in my sweat-soaked bed. I started wiping away strands of my hair that stuck to my wet face. Then I realized what I had said out loud. "Sorry, Mom," I told her photo on my nightstand that set right next to my bed. Hm. But maybe she didn't hear me over my alarm clock blasting 'Saturday Night,' by Jessica Mauboy.

Or~ maybe she'd understand. I just had a close encounter with Gary! Even if it was only in my dreams. But STILL! It was a very close encounter. Even closer and he would have been mines. _*wink*_ But sadly it was only a dream.

But kind of weird because usually I didn't remember my dreams. Whenever my brother, green, was home from college, he told Dad and me what he had a dream about the night before at breakfast. Let me tell you, they were all fantasies. Pure bullshit. Of course I didn't want to dream about 'meeting some famous person'.

Once I googled 'dreaming' and actually found out that some people don't remember their dreams if their bodies are used to getting up at the same hour or something every morning.

Hm. That brings my attention to something: Why did I remember my dream this morning? Know why? I know why! Because it's the first day of summer vacation! To start work at the Marina, I had to set my clock thirty minutes earlier than usual. And that's why I remembered my dream. Maybe I should start doing this often so I can remember more close encounters with Gary. Well...

About Gary: Check. Blowing me off, as usual: NOO~!

It might happen in my dreams, but not in real life. Nuh uh. No way! Gary would be mine, starting today. Just wait and see. Before getting out of bed, I gave Mom an okay sign - it was the wakeboarding signal for ready to go.

My father and brother suspected nothing. They didn't even notice what I had on, which is of course good because...well...I'm not sure but it's just good. I don't need them in my business. Our conversation at breakfast was the same one we'd had every summer morning since my brother was eight years old and I was five.

Dad to brother: "Take care of your sister today."

Brother between bites of egg and looking at me from the corner of his eye: "Sure, whatever."

Dad to me: "And you watch out around those Ketchum boys."

Me: (Rolls Eyes.)

Brother: "I had this great dream last night."

Yup. That was our normal conversation at breakfast. Every summer morning. Gets annoying, but I can totally live with it. I'm used to it.

After breakfast, my brother and I went across our yard and the Ketchums' yard to the showrooms, warehouses, and docks at the Ketchum's Marina. The air was already hot and stuffy. It was filled with the smell of freshly cut grass. But I didn't mind this. I liked the heat and the smell of fresh cut grass. It was like summer was welcoming me.

And I couldn't wait to spend this summer with Gary.

In the past years, any one of the three Ketchum boys, including Gary, might have came to my house to throw a football or play video games with my brother.

Sometimes they would let me play. But only if they felt sorry for me, or if their mom had told them to. And sometimes my brother would go to their house to play football or video games. Or do whatever they did when I wasn't around. But I wasn't allowed to go to their house. If I walked in they would probably - most likely - stop whatever they would be doing and look at me like I was some crazy-looking animal or something. I mean I wouldn't blame them. They were boys. They were my brothers friends, not mine.

Well, Ash was my friend. He was probably more of my friend than my brother's. Even though we were the same age and went to the same school, we had absolutely no classes together, so you would think that he would walk one hundred yards over to my house for a visit every once in a while. But he didn't. And if I'd gone to visit him, it would have been obvious that I was looking for Gary out of the corner of my eyes the whole time.

For the past nine and a half months, with my brother at college, my last tie with Gary had been loosened and un-did. He was two freaking years older than me, so I didn't have classes with him, either. We weren't even in the same wing of the high school. Which sucks a bunch of ass! I saw him once at a football game, and once in front of the movie theatre when I had ridden around with May for a few minutes after a tennis match. But I never went up to him.

He was always flirting with Giselle or Leaf or whatever pretty girl he was with at the moment. I was too young for him, and he never even thought of hooking up with me. On an extremely rare occasion when he took the garbage out at the same time I walked to the mailbox, he gave me the usual beaming smile and a huge hug and acted like I was his best friend ever...for twenty heavenly seconds.

It had been a long winter. Too long of a winter. Geesh. And finally we were back to the summer season! The Ketchums always needed extra help at the Marina during the busy season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Just like last year, I had a job there - and an excuse to get attention from Gary. I sped up my trek across the pine needles between the trees and found myself in a footrace against my brother. It was totally unfair because I had on flip-flops and he was wearing sneakers, but I beat him to the warehouse anyway.

The Ketchum boys had gotten there before us and claimed all the good jobs. I wouldn't have a chance to work side by side with Gary, today. Paul was helping the full-time workers take boats out of storage. He wanted my brother to work with him so they could catch up on their lives at two different colleges. Paul and Ash were already gone doing their jobs, I'm guessing. Now, Gary wasn't around to see my outfit. I was so desperate to get going on this "new me" thing, that I would have settled for a double take from Ash or Paul.

And what did I get? Mrs. Ketchum. Now that I think about it, she was a good person to run the outfit by. She always wore the most stylish clothes. She was really pretty too. She had long brown hair that she usually kept in a pony tail, but she let it out on some occasions. She was the kind of Mom that you'd actually want to have in public with you. The one that doesn't embarrass you. In the way she looks at least...

Her words...eh. Let's just say she knew how to embarrass her boys when she felt like it. I can't lie, it would always be funny to see how they would turn red faced and quickly get away, but hell, I did feel bad for them. Just think of your mom telling you to change your underwear in front of your friends. I thought about...and it wasn't good. It made it seem like you don't change your underwear or something. Glad she wasn't my mother. I'd die whenever she said that or something like it.

I found Mrs. Ketchum in her office sitting behind a desk, typing away on her computer. I pulled up a chair so I was sitting at her desk, in front of her. "Hey~ Mrs. Ketchum," I said, "notice anything different about me?" I smirked.

She stopped typing and looked at me carefully trying to see what had change about me. Ha. Just wait until she notices! "Uh...no Dawn," She said while cocking her eyebrow. "I don't notice anything different honey." Dammit! How could she not notice! She went back to typing while taking small glances at me, still trying to see what was different about me.

"Notice anything about my boobs?"

Yes!

That sure did grab her attention. She stopped typing, took her hands off the keyboard and leaned a little closer to look at my chest. "You changed your boobs?"

"I'm showing my boobs," I said proudly while I moved my palm in front of them like I was presenting them on a TV commercial.

My usual summer uniform was old clothes that Ash had out-grown clothes he had given me over the years: Jeans, which I cut off into shorts and old T-shirts from his football team. And under that I would wear a one-piece bathing suit with full coverage that reached all the way up my neck.

Early in the boob-emerging years, I had none what so ever, and let me tell you...I was very touchy about it. Have you ever typed 55378008 on a calculator, turned it upside down, and hand it to the flat-chested girl across the room? Yeah? Well guess what? I was that girl **(A/N: NOT REALLY xD)**.I swear I would have died if any boys mentioned my boobs. They were just embarrassing. But, hey, no need to worry now.

Last year, I started growing boobs and I think they progressed quite nicely. Well considering that I was very flat-chested. Now I had something and I sure as hell was going to flaunt it.

That's why I'm no longer wearing a one-piece bathing suit anymore.

Bye bye one-pieces and hello bikinis.

So today, I'd worn a cute little light blue bikini. Over that I had on Ash's old cut off shorts. Amazingly, they looked sexy, riding low on my hips. And no more football T-shirts. Now, I had on a pink tank top that ended above my belly button and hugged my figure perfectly. I had some cleavage showing. I was so proud and sure that Gary was just going to love it.

Mrs. Ketchum stared at my chest, perplexed. Finally she said, "Oh~ I get it," she said, "You're trying to look hot."

"Thank you!" Finally she caught on. I mean, it really wasn't that hard. A old woman could have figured that out in a few seconds. Not that I was calling Mrs. Ketchum slow, but it just took her too long to realize my mission.

"Here's a hint," she said and eyed me. "Close your legs."

I quickly closed my legs. Humph. People always said something about me sitting like a boy. Can you blame me though? I've been around boys my whole life practically. "Where do you want me to work today?" I asked as I got up from the chair and walked over to the door.

"You have gas," she said and she turned back to the computer and immediately starting typing again.

Oh, goody. I walked out the door and headed to the dock to get a roll on my job.

I heard the office door squeak open and I turned around. "Dawn," Mrs. Ketchum called. "Did you want to talk?"

Nooo~. Nothing like that what so ever. I only went into her office to start a conversation and get her to notice my new look. Besides, she had three sons. She didn't know how to talk to a girl. And I didn't know how to talk to a woman. My mom died in a boating accident on the lake when I was three. Any conversation between Mrs. Ketchum and me would be doomed from the start.

"No, why?" I asked.

"Just watch out when you're around the boys," she warned me.

I raised my hand and wiggled my skinny little fingers. Toodles. They were harmless. If anything, they better watch out for me.

I really enjoyed having gas (no jokes please). I got to sit on the edge of the dock with my feet dangling in the cool water and catch some rays. Relaxing much? Later I'd take a swim. Not now, before Gary saw me for the first time that summer. He had to see me. I would be in and out of the lake and windy boats all day and my hair would be like hell! That was understood. But I wanted to have clean, dry, styled hair at least the first time he saw me, and I would hope he kept the memory. And I'm pretty sure he would.

I might go swimming after he saw me, while I waited around for people to drive their boats up to the gas pumps.

A rich family just left the gas and they tipped me really well. Twenty dollars for giving them gas in their boat. Woohoo!

Right as I was folding the twenty dollar bill into my back pocket Ash and Gary came zipping across the water in a boat that had the words **KETCHUM'S MARINA** down the side. They were blasting some music that I couldn't stand from the speakers on the boat.

Ash was driving. Ash parked the boat on the dock and Gary threw me the rope. I could hear them arguing about this. That's all they did. Argue, argue, argue, and fuss, fuss, fuss. 24/7. But I was used to it. Good thing, too. But I would rather not hear Gary complaining that they were going to walk a whole extra fifty yards and up the stairs just so Ash could say hi to me.

Gary jumped off the boat. His weight rocked the floating dock again as he tied up the bow. He was big, maybe six feet tall? He had a deep tan from working all spring on the Marina, and a hard, muscled chest and arms from competing with Ash for the last five years over who would lift more pounds on the dumbbell (Gary and Ash were like this). Then he straightened and smiled his beautiful smile at me, and I forgave him for everything.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: And...finished :) I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. I'm going to try something different with Dawn's POV. 1) I'm going to try to make more of Dawn's thoughts. 2)I'm trying to make her POV somewhat humorous. Something new...so it might not work o_O I'm not a funny person...just goofy xD<strong>

**Please tell me what you think about this so far :) I'd really appreciate it. I'll be updating this story once a week. So one day next week Chapter 2 will be up :D**

**Also, before you go I will be having another story posted soon entitled "We're All In This Together" (there's more info on my page about it, but that is subject to change) and I've made a movie trailer for it :) It's not that good xD but I think it's alright for my first time :D. If you're interested here's the link to it: **

http:(TWO SLASHES)www(DOT)youtube(DOT)com/watch?v=rToVABtqJf8

**Now you may go :) if you have any questions than feel free to PM me :)**

**- Angel ;)**


	2. Bryozoa, the Boys, and Calisthenics

**Author's Notes: Hello everyone :D As I promised, here's an update for this week :D Quite a few of you seem to like this story already :) I think you guys will really like this story ;) and by the way, Thank you all for the reviews :D **

**Now, you may go on and read the chapter ;D I hope you enjoy!**

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><p><span>Bryozoa, The Boys, &amp; Calisthenics <span>

"Hey, Buddy," Gary said to me. I got a close-up view of his strange, black eyes and his tanned skin as he threw his arms around me and kept walking right over me. I had to throw my arms around him, too, to keep from falling.

"Oh pardon me!" he said while he pulled me out from under him and setting me steadily on my feet again. "I didn't even see you there."

"It's okay," I said. His hands were still on my waist. This was the first time, ever, that a boy touched my bare tummy. My heart started to thump painfully in my chest.

By the time I looked into his eyes, he was already gone, glancing up at the stairs to the marina. Hmm~...if I didn't know any better, I'd say that he'd been flirting with me. I knew better, though. He treated all girls this way.

He slid out of my hold. "See you later, Junior," he threw over his shoulder at me as he went up the stairs to the marina.

When we were kids, he'd started calling my brother Green because of his hair. Somehow my brother, Drew aka Green, had green hair instead of blue like my mom's hair or black like my dad's hair. I inherited my mother's hair genes: Blue hair. But Drew on the other hand, hadn't inherited Mom or Dad's genes - for hair at least. My dad said that his great, great, great grandfather had green hair and that Drew might have gotten it from him. Eh, strange if you ask me.

Anyways, the nickname Green caught on with the other Ketchum boys, and Paul had told everyone at school about it. So~ everyone started calling him Green. Not that he cared though. Drew liked his green hair because he thought it was different. Typical him.

I'm not even sure if anyone in town knew my brother as Drew. Oh well. At least they knew me as Dawn. But Gary had made up little nicknames for me too: Green's little sister, Green Junior, Green Part Deux...blah, blah, blah. It goes on. But they were too long and stupid to be an actual nickname to use daily. Besides, they didn't make sense to me.

But do you see what I was up against? Obviously he still sees me as my brother's little sister. I can't have that happening! Gary has to see me as...not my brother's little sister!

I sighed as I watched Gary go up the stairs. He was obviously very oblivious to my pink tank top. But, thankfully, I had another trick up my sleeve and it was ready to be used. And because my first plan didn't work, this new plan will be used. Later that afternoon, when we went wakeboarding, I would initiate Stage Two: Bikini!

The dock dipped again as Ash jumped from the boat. I turned to greet him and we did our secret handshake. We'd been doing our handshake since first grade up until now. We'd do the handshakes when we passed in the halls at school and on the sidelines during Ash's football games.

But Ash had gotten with Misty a month before. Ever since I had heard the rumor that she didn't want her boyfriend doing the secret handshake with "that 'ho next door," I tried to cool it in public. I mean, if I'd had a boyfriend, I wouldn't want him doing a secret handshake with anybody but me, especially if he looked like Ash.

Ash looked just like Gary. Up close and in daylight, you'd never mistake them for each other, especially now that they were older. Their facial features were different. At a distance or in the dark, all bets were off. You just could not tell them apart. Though, Gary's hair was brown - from Mrs. Ketchum's genes - and Ash's was black - from Mr. Ketchum's genes - from far away Gary's hair would look black just like Ash's. And of course in the dark his hair would look black. So yeah...

Gary's hair was a little longer than Ash's, but you couldn't tell this when they were both windblown in the extreme, like now. If you ever just happened to be watching them from your bedroom window as they got in a fight and beat the crap out of each other at the edge of the yard where their mom couldn't see them from their house - not that I would do such a thing - you could definitely tell them apart. But only because Gary was more filled out and a little taller, since he was two years older than Ash. Also they walked very differently. Gary cruised suavely, while Ash bounced along.

But there was one thing that I always looked for to tell them apart instantly, when I could see it, was Ash's red-and-white pokeball pendant on a silver chain. I had bought the little pendant from a bubblegum machine when we were twelve. I was actually trying to get a cute bracelet that I saw but instead the pokeball necklace popped up and I didn't want it, so I gave it to Ash. Plus it was made for him, in a way.

Suddenly I realized I was standing on the dock, staring at the pendant around his neck. And when I looked up into his brown eyes. I saw that he was staring at my neck. Wait a minute, NO. He was staring down lower.

"Whatcha staring at?" I asked.

He cleared his throat and his cheeks flushed pink. "Tank top or what?" This was his seal of approval, as in, 'Last day or school or what?' or, 'Hot cheerleaders or what?'

HOORAY! In my head I was doing a little happy dance. He might not have been Gary, but he was built of the same material. This was a good sign.

I pumped him for more info, to make sure. "What about my tank top."

"You're wearing it." He looked out across the late. I'm guessing he was trying to hide his blushing cheeks but it wasn't working. He was giving me a full view of his cheek. I had embarrassed the wrong boy. Damn.

"Look," I told Ash, as if he hadn't already looked. "Gary's leaving at the end of the summer. Yeah, yeah, he'll be back next summer, but I'm afraid I won't be able to compete once he's had a taste of college life and sorority girls. It's now or never, and desperate times call for desperate tank tops."

Ash opened his mouth ready to say something, but I shut him up by putting my hand up in front of him. Imitating his deep boy-voice, I said, "I don't know why you want to hook up with that jerk." We'd had this conversation whenever we saw each other lately. Now I went back to my normal voice, "I just do okay? Let me do it and don't get in my way. Stay out of my net, little dolphin." I bumped his hips with my hip. Or at least I tried to. He was much taller than I was. I actually hit somewhere around his thigh. Geesh, I wish he could shrink a little so I could hit his hip properly.

Ash folded his arms, stared me down, and pressed his lips together. He tried to look grim but I could tell that he was struggling not to laugh. "Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"Dolphins don't live in lakes," he said matter-of-factly.

"Fine, little brim. Little bass."

He walked towards the stairs and I smirked.

"Little striper," I said.

He stopped his walk towards the stairs and turned to face me again. "What if Gary actually asked you out?"

Ugh. He used "actually" as if it couldn't happen! That jerk! It could happen! "You act like it's the most remote poss-"

"He has to ride around with the sunroof open just so he can fit his big head in the truck. Where would you sit?"

"His lap?"

A look of pure disgust flashed across Ash's face before he turned away from me and jogged up the stairs.

I wasn't really worried he would ruin things for me and Gary. Ash and I had always gotten along great. When the older boys picked on us, we stood up for each other as best we could. The idea of me hooking up with Gary bothered him simply because he hated Gary with the heat of a thousand suns, and the feeling was mutual.

A few minutes later I heard footsteps on the stairs behind me. Gary alert! Sensory overload! But no, I saw the pokeball necklace and knew it was Ash.

Out of nowhere Gary drove past us in the boat, playing music, looking so so hot in his cool sunglasses. His tanned chest was polished by the sun. Wow. I swear I could have just fainted by seeing that.

I had forgot that Ash was behind me until he tickled my ribs. I was so startled that I would have fallen face first into the lake if he hadn't caught me. This was the second time that a boy ever touched my bare little tummy.

The attention I was getting from him and his fingers on my skin were very pleasant. Yeah, I won't lie about that, but he was just being friendly, being like an older brother to me. He was totally devoted to Misty, and he knew that I had my eyes set on Gary. So it was just a friendly kind of thing so don't get any ideas.

For the rest of the morning, I pumped gas. When it was time for lunch I went up to the Marina and ate a chicken salad sandwich that Mrs. Ketchum made me and watched re-runs of Dance Moms.

I ate very slowly. I mean reeaally slow! I'd took a little nibble of bread at a time. I was doing this because if I took long enough I might run into Gary's lunchtime and we'd eat lunch together. Good plan, huh?

But, sadly, it didn't work.

After Mrs. Ketchum looked at me for maybe the thousandth time, I got the hint and headed back down to the gas pumps. And of course that's when Gary and Ash took their lunch break.

Talk about someone being pissed!

I just decided to give up. Now that Gary had seen me dry, it was safe to go swimming. I knew from experience that before you went swimming off a dock for the first time each summer, you needed to check the sides and the ladder very carefully for bryozoa, colonies of slimy green critters that grew on hard surfaces underwater. They were like coral except they were like gelatin - gooey, slimy, wet, and green. Ew! They wouldn't hurt you, no. They were part of a healthy freshwater ecosystem. If they were in the water, it meant that the water was perfectly clean and unpolluted - but this wasn't consolation if you accidently touched them.

Poking around with a water ski and finding nothing, I spent the rest of the afternoon watching for Gary from the cool water.

I would get out of the water whenever Gary sped by in the boat, in order to woo him like one of those gorgeous girls in movies who would be coming from out of the ocean in a bikini, in slow motion, with the little music playing and all the boys would be all hypnotized? Yeah, I seen a movie like that with the boys maybe about five hundred times and the bikini scene like seven hundred.

But it didn't seem to work for me.

Sometimes Gary was behind the wheel, driving the boat and sometimes Ash was. I could tell which was which even when I was too far to see Ash's necklace. Ash was the one waving to me while Gary was the one looking sexy in his sunglasses. Hm...I just thought about something.

Maybe Gary was watching me...from behind his sunglasses and I just couldn't tell. He only appeared unmoved by my newfound beauty.

Eh, but then again...he probably wasn't though.

Round four o'clock I climbed the stairs and walked around the warehouses. I knew the boys wouldn't save me the walk by driving around to the gas pumps to pick me up. Ash might, if it was up to him, but it wasn't up to him.

Ash, Gary, Paul, and my brother, all wearing swimming trunks, stood in a line, pitching wakeboards, water skis, life vests, and tow ropes from the warehouse into the boat. Ash, Paul, and Green half-turned towards Gary as he told them some amusing story that was probably only half percent true. They hadn't even noticed that he stopped working. They handed wakeboards around Gary in the line. His only job was to entertain.

No fair, because I wanted him to entertain me too. I could listen to his stories forever. He could make something as simple as a trip to the grocery store into a amazingly hilarious story. The way he told stories you would think they came out of a comedy movie or something. They were always stupid but funny and extremely entertaining.

Well, anyways, I had something to do. I had a grand entrance to make. While I walked toward them, I pulled my tank top off to reveal my sexylicous bikini.

I balled my tank top up and threw it in the boat. "Hey~!" I said in a really girly voice as I hugged Paul, whom I hadn't seen since he had come home from college for the summer a few days ago. He hugged me back and kept glancing at my boobs and trying not to. My brother had that look on his face like he was going to ask Dad to take me back to the shrink again.

I bent over with my butt toward them *wink*, dropped my shorts, and threw those in the boat, too. When I straighten back up, I turned to see the boys. Man was I in for a shock.

I had thought I wanted Gary to stare at me; I did want him to stare. But now that Gary, Paul, and Ash were all staring at me, speechless, I wondered where there was something on me or something. Or something worse...an exposed nipple.

I didn't feel a breeze down there, though. And I knew that if I looked down in the direction they were staring it would ruin my grand entrance.

So instead, I snapped my fingers and asked, "Zone much?" What I'm really asking: I'm hot? I know, thanks.

Ash blinked and turned to face Gary. "Bikini or what?"

Gary still stared at my boobs. Slowly he brought his strange black eyes up to meet mines. "This does a lot for you," he said, gesturing to my bikini with his hand.

"Gary," I said with a small, cute laugh, "I do a lot for the bikini."

Paul snorted and shoved Gary. Ash shoved him in the other direction. Gary smiled and seemed perplexed, like he was trying to think of a comeback but couldn't, for once.

Off to the side, I could see that my brother looked very uncomfortable. I hadn't thought how he would act to my changing. I hadn't thought through any of their reactions very well, in case you weren't getting this. I wanted Gary to ask me out, but I didn't want to lose my relationship, such as with everybody else. I wanted to come as close as I could to winning Gary without going over.

"Team calisthenics," Drew called. I understood that he wanted to change the subject to get away from his uncomfortableness, but I'd hoped we could skip the exercises now that we were all grown up. Mr. Ketchum used to make us do push-ups together before we went out. The stronger you were, the less likely we were to get hurt while wakeboarding.

I dropped on my hands on the ground just as fast as the rest of them, and started doing push-ups. All five of us did push-ups. While the other boys grunted or made the little noises they made, me and Ash made none because we stayed in shape.

We had too because we were both in training for sports. Ash might start for the football team this year. I was just trying not to get kicked off the tennis team by an incoming freshman. But if I did, I could always do track. I'm pretty fast. Maybe not as fast as Gary or Ash but I was always right on their heel when we raced.

But I liked tennis and didn't want to get kicked off just because someone better came along. My game was okay, but it wasn't as good as Leaf or Giselle, who had just graduated. Or May, who would be a senior this year, and team captain.

Plus, their was an unfortunate incident last year. I didn't train all winter, got to our first tournament, overexerted myself, and puked all over the court. I went on to win the match but nobody seemed to remember that part. Ever since then, I'd made sure to stay in shape.

Today I held my own in push-ups. After about fifty, I was nowhere near my limit. Hey, what can I say? I'm a tough girl and in shape.

Paul's grunting increase, which made it hard to concentrate on myself because his noises were hard to ignore. His cheeks were starting to turn a light red, his arms trembled and finally he collapsed on his bare stomach.

Paul cursed to himself. "I don't know why I can't get my ass together today."

Between push-ups, I breathed, "About twelve ounces too much frat party for you."

Paul came toward me. I knew I was in trouble, but it was too late to get up and run. One solid arm slid around my waist, while the other arm held my legs tightly. I couldn't wiggle my way out or, better yet, kick him. He took two steps toward the edge of the dock.

Okay, here's a little tip: Don't insult Paul or make any joke about him. The outcome isn't too good. Paul, he's the hothead of the three brothers.

I managed not to plead or scream. After almost sixteen years with the boys, I had a lot of control over my natural girly-reactions. It wasn't until he threw me off that I remembered I did want to react like a girl today. Then as I hit the water, I realized I hadn't searched this swimming area for bryozoa.

"AAH!"

I plunged in the water. Almost before my toes hit the bottom, I was swimming back to the platform on the back of the boat, which was less likely to have bryozoa. Ugh, ugh, ugh, I could feel a mass squishing past my skin - but I made it safely to the surface.

I mentally slapped myself. If I had acted like the girl I was trying to be, by screaming and pleading not to do it, then he would not have thrown me in the water.

By the time I stood on the platform, I remembered I was now wearing a wet bikini. I got myself together enough to make jumping down into the boat look halfway attractive. But nobody was looking at me anymore. Paul and my brother stood over Ash and Gary still doing push-ups.

Ash, kept pushing himself up in an even rhythm. Gary watched Ash with a little smile and gritted teeth, his face turning red. The bulging muscles of Gary's arms trembled.

Oh God, Gary was going to lose.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Uh oh~ seems like Gary will lose, huh? xD Not really a good thing...if it happens. I guess I left a small, tiny cliffhanger. Nothing big ;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though nothing happened :p <strong>

**Shadowkittyxx, I hope you're happy :p I updated because of you xD Now go update your story, which I've been waiting so long for you to do since it's AMAZING! Speaking of which, everyone should go read her story. It's called "Washed Up Popstars" I swear this is one of the funniest, well written, pearlshipping (Main shipping :D), contestshipping, oldrivalshipping, and PaulxMisty story EVER :D I highly recommend this story. Especially if you want to read a really good, interesting story :D So yeah, check out her story!**

**With that said xD please review :D and I will update again sometime next week (:**

**- Angel :D**


	3. Wakeboarding Beauty

**Author's Notes: Hi :D here is another update for the week :D I'm so glad that many of you are enjoying this story so far :D thank you all for the reviews for last chapter :D**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter... (:**

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><p><span>Wakeboarding Beauty<span>

Gary fell on the concrete ground with a groan. Ash continued to do push-ups even though Gary had stopped already. He probably continued because these games we played tended to change without warning. Gary might claim that Ash had to do ten more push-ups. Ash wasn't stupid. He made sure. Gary stood up and Ash was still doing push-ups.

"We've created a monster," my brother said.

Ash did one last push-up and slowly stood up. He clapped his hands together to get the dust off his hands. And then - _don't do it_ _Ash, don't make Gary any angrier than he already is_ - he gave Gary a grin.

"I can't believe Ash beat you Gary," Paul shouted. "You know what else? Ash is taller! Stand back-to-back and let me make sure."

Gary refused to stand back-to-back with Ash. They goaded him and called him names that I can't repeat, but that had to with Gary being a girl, the worst insult imaginable. So~ Gary did end up standing back-to-back with Ash. Sure enough, Gary was more muscular and filled out, as always, but Ash was definitely taller - an inch taller.

Ash turned to Gary and gave him that grim look with a dropped jaw, trying not to laugh. "I'm the biggest."

"Ooooooh~!" Paul and my brother moaned like Ash had gotten in a good punch on Gary in one of their boxing matches (don't ask). I'll spare you the five minutes of size jokes that took place.

May and some other girls on the tennis team had told me they were jealous of me growing up around boys, because I had a window into how boys thought. This, my friends, was the deep, dark secret.

The size jokes went on and on as if I weren't there, or as if I weren't a girl. I don't know which one was worse.

"I don't care what you guys say," Gary said with his usual smirk on his face. "I'm still awesome."Gary smiled, wincing a little as they shoved him. He would smile no matter what they said to him. This was one of the many things that I loved about Gary. The boys knew they couldn't break him...but they would try anyway.

But I was a little concerned about what Gary would do to Ash later. Gary didn't let Ash get away with stuff like that. But I supposed that was Ash's business, the dumbass.

Disgusted, I sat in the boat with my back to them. When they ran out of size jokes for the moment - they would think of more as the day went on, trust me - they all got into the boat and proceeded to argue about who got to drive first. The agreement was that Gary could drive first as a consolation prize because he was a loser.

There was no question about me driving. I got my boater's license when I turned fifteen, just like they did. The problem was that I didn't know my left from my right. This was their fault, really. They taught me to waterski when I was six years old. Nobody thought I'd get up and stay up on the first try, so I wasn't properly instructed on the dismount. I couldn't steer. Too terrified to drop the rope, I ran into the dock and broke my arm.

My _right _arm. At the time, my brain must have been designing the circuitry that told me left from right. Because since then, I'd never been able to hear Gary yell, "Go left!" or my brother holler, "Turn to the right!" without thinking, _okay. I broke my right arm. This is my right arm. They want me to turn this way, _by which time I had missed the turn, or run the boy I was pulling on the wakeboard into a tree. We found this out the hard way last summer, the first time I tried to pull Ash.

Gary started the engine and putted through the marina waters, and Ash had the nerve to plop onto the seat across the aisle from me.

Ash called to me so softly I could barely catch his words over the motor, "Close your legs."

"For what? I waxed!" I looked down to make sure. This was okay to do now because Gary was facing the other way and couldn't hear me in the din. Indeed, I was clean. I spread my legs even wider, put my arms on the back of the seat, and generally took up as much room as I could. I glanced back over at Ash. "Does it make you uncomfortable for me to sit this way?"

He watched me warily. "Yes."

"May I say that this is your problem and not mine?"

He licked his lips and leaned forward toward me. "If it keeps Gary from asking you out, it's going to be your problem, and you're going to make it my problem."

"Speaking of which," I said, crossing my legs like a sophisticated young lady. "Thanks for staying out of my way," I said sarcastically. "How the hell am I supposed to get Gary to ask me out if he's pissed off?"

"You wanted me to lose to him at calisthenics? That was far too sweet to miss. I wouldn't do that for the world."

"You didn't have to win by quite so much, Ash. You knew I needed him in a good mood. You didn't have to rub it in, asshole."

Ash grinned at me. "And you wanted me to stop growing?"

"Do not make a joke about your size. If you can't think of anything to talk about except your large size, please say nothing at all...seriously."

So we all sat in silence until Gary slowed the boat in the middle of the lake. Drew put on his life vest, sat on the platform, slipped his feet into the bindings of his wakeboard, and hopped into the water. He and Paul had been the ones to discover wakeboarding, and they did it first while the rest of us were still waterskiing. To look at them today, you'd think they'd never gotten the hang of it. My brother face-planted twice in his twenty-minute turn. Paul had a hard time getting up. Frankly, I was beginning to worry.

Ever since we were kids we spent the summer afternoon skiing and wakeboarding behind the Ketchum's Marina boat as advertisement for business. Gary had somehow convinced his dad, Mr. Ketchum, to go all out with a boat made especially for wakeboarding, which made bigger waves.

We held a special wakeboarding exhibition when the lake was crowded on the Fourth of July and Labor Day. But our show during the Crappy Festival in two weeks was the most important, because sales of boats and equipment at the marina were highest near the beginning of the summer.

Okay, it was actually the Crappie Festival. Crappie is a kind of fish, pronounced more like croppie. The Crappie festival had a Crappie Queen and a Crappie Bake-off and a Crappie Toss, in which people competed to throw dead fish farther down the lake shore. Why people would want to touch a dead fish in the first place and throw it was way beyond me.

Gary was the first one who started calling it the Crappy Festival, which sounded a lot more fun.

But the festival would be no fun at all if we kept wakeboarding like this! None of us had been out on the water since Labor Day last year, but come on - they could do better than this. I never expected Paul and my brother to be so awful on their first time out. And since Gary would be watching me now, I hoped I broke the cycle.

I strapped a life vest over my bikini. Such a pity to cover my shapely body (snort). Then I tied my feet into the bindings attached to my board. I hopped into the water, wakeboard and all, and assumed the position. I wished my brother would drive the boat away from me a little faster.

The wakeboard floated on it's side in front of me as I crouched behind it with my knees spread. Talk about needed to close my legs! The embarrassing stance had caused me to get up too quickly and face-plant more times than I cared to count, just to save myself a few seconds of the boys cracking jokes about me that I couldn't hear.

But not today. I relaxed in the water. Anyone care for an eyeful? *wink*

I parted my knees and gave Ash the okay sign. He was spotting. Gary and Paul watched me, too, as concerned as I was that we all sucked and Mr. Ketchum would pull the plug of our daily outing. No pressure. When my brother finally got around to opening up the engine, I let the boat pull me up and relaxed into the adrenalin rush.

Wakeboarding was pretty simple. I stood on the wakeboard like a skateboard, and held onto the rope as if I were waterskiing. The boat motor left a triangular wake behind it as the boat moved through the water. I moved outside of it by going over one of the small waves. Then I turned back inward and used one wave as a skateboarding ramp to take off. I sailed over the wave, and used the opposite wave as a ramp to land.

After a few minutes I mostly forgot about the boys, even Gary. The drone of the motor would do that like nothing else: put me in a different zone. I enjoyed the sun, the water, and the wakeboard.

My intention all along had been to get my wakeboarding legs back this first day. Maybe I'd do tricks when we went out the next day. I didn't want to get too cocky and bust my ass in front of Gary. But as I got more comfortable and forgot to care, I tried a few things - front flips and back flips. There was no busting of ass from me. So I tried a backroll. And I landed it perfectly.

Now I got cocky.

I did a heelside back-roll. And I landed it. This was getting too good to be true.

My brother swung the boat around just before we reached the graffiti-covered highway bridge that spanned the lake.

Paul had spray-painted his name and his girlfriend's name on the bridge, alongside other couples' names and over faded ones. My genius brother had tried to paint his own name but ran out of room on that section of the bridge.

Drew Berli

tz

Idiot.

Gary wisely never painted his girlfriends' names. He would have had to change them too often. For my part, I was very thankful that when most of this spray-painting action was going on last summer, I was still too short to reach over from the pile and haul myself up on the main part of the bridge. I probably had the height and upper body strength now, and I prayed that none of the boys pointed this out. Then I'd have to spray-paint DAWN LOVES GARY on the bridge and move all the way to Unova.

It was kind of strange that Ash hadn't spray-painted his name with Misty's in the past few weeks. Maybe he didn't consider it daring enough, if Paul had managed to do it.

Ash _had_ painted in red letters in the very center of the bridge, WASH ME. The bridge was a big part of our lake experience. Wakeboarding underneath it would have been cool. But driving the bridge while towing a wakeboard was dangerous. Ash had been the one to discover this (seventh grade).

My brother pointed the boat for the rail. A few summers ago, the boys had pulled the guts out of an old pontoon boat that also said Ketchum's Marina down the side. They anchored it near the short and built a rail sticking out from it, topped with PVC pipe. You could really hurt yourself on this (Ash: eight grade) but my ride was going great, and I was in the groove. I zoomed far out from the wakeboarding boat, popped up onto the rail, slid across it on the board, and landed nice and soft in the water on the other end.

Ash raised both fist as me. (Nice, but no love from Gary?) If Ash yelled, I couldn't hear him over the boat motor. What I could hear as my brother paralleled the shoreline was the Myers and the Whitleys, our neighbors hanging out on their docks. They came out to watch us practice a lot of afternoons. Cha-ching! Two sales we'd as good as made for Ketchum's Marina when their kids got a little older.

Then came my family's dock, the Ketchum's dock at their house, and finally the marina. Dad had gotten home from work, I saw. He and Mr. Ketchum sat in lawn chairs on the marina dock, drinking beers. I really shouldn't have done this if I was trying to be ladylike. But the opportunity was too perfect to resist, and the old habits die hard. I arced my way out from the wake, aiming for the dock.

My dad saw my coming and knew exactly what was going to happen. He jumped from his chair and jogged up the stairs, toward the shore, so I wouldn't ruin his business suit. His tie flapped over his shoulder. He didn't even warn Mr. Ketchum, who took a sip of beer as I slid past, spraying water probably fifteen feet in the air behind me.

The wall of water smacked right on top of him. I didn't want to turn my head to look, lose my balance, fall, and ruin the effect. But I saw him out the corner of my eyes, T-shirt and shorts soaked, beer halted in midair.

Gary probably heard me cackling all the way up in the boat. Sex-y. I tried to calm myself down and concentrate. I wanted to try and air raley, which I'd been working on all last summer but never landed it. If there was one good reason for Gary to never ask me out, it was that he couldn't shake the memory of wiping out after an air raley. Done correctly, I would hang in the air behind the boat for a few seconds with the board above my head. I would then sail down the opposite wake and land sweetly. Done incorrectly, it was a high-speed belly flop.

When I busted ass (or tummy), Gary and the other boys would make fun of me for the rest of the boat ride, and would spread it around their party that night. But they were so far away in that toy boat, and the drone of the motor was like a bubble around me. Nothing could hurt me in here.

I gestured upward, which told Ash to tell my brother to speed up. Ash knew what I planned to do and shook his head at me. What a pain, to stop the boat and argue with him about it. He didn't consult anyone before he tried a trick and busted his ass. If we stopped, Gary would insist my turn was over, and I'd be done for the day. I wasn't done. So I nodded my head vigorously. Ash shook his finger at me, scolding me like a little child. Then he turned and spoke to my brother.

The drone pitched higher as the boat sped up. I relaxed and let the boat and wave do the work for me. My muscles remembered what they'd tried to do last summer, and this time they were able to do it. I caught miles of arm a huge thrill, and one glance at the boat: four boys with their mouths open. Then I almost panicked as I lost my balance when my board hit its high point behind me.

Almost - but I kept myself together. I rode gravity down the opposite wave.

Immediately I arced out and back to pick up speed, and did a 360. Landed it. Then a 540. Landed it.

I thought I might be pushing my luck. I'd probably break my leg climbing back into the boat. Also, I didn't want my arms to be so sore the next day that I couldn't ride at all. I signaled to Ash that I was stopping and dropped the rope. The handle skipped away from me across the surface of the lake.

As the echo of the motor faded away and I sank into the warm water, I could hear them clapping for me. All four of them, standing up in the boat, facing me, applauding me and cheering for me. "Yay~ Junior!"

I had never been so happy in my life.

And it got better.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: And~ finished :) Has anyone ever went wakeboarding on a lake before? If you haven't, you must try it! It's really fun, but hard until you get really used to it. Anyways, I hope you lovely readers enjoyed this chapter :) Did you see the little Pearlshipping moment I added? ;D<strong>

**;) I'll be updating again next week! Please review :D**


	4. Let the Flirting Begin!

**Author's Notes: :D It's time for another update, guys! **

**But before you start reading, I want to get this message across...again and _hopefully_ this will be my last time saying this: *Clears throat* The first few chapters will _SEEM _like it's not a pearlshipping story (did I not say that in the first chapter? -_-) however, it is! _AND DO NOT FORGET THAT!_ Every pearlshipping story doesn't have to start out as pearlshipping. Okay? So please do not say in a revew "I thought this was supposed to be pearlshipping" or anything else similar because I already told you what's up. Just sit back, read, and wait for everything to come :p And if you don't like what I'm doing with my story than oh well, you can suck it up or go read another story - doesn't make a difference to me. Okay? :)**

**So with that said, you may now read :) Enjoy!**

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><p><span>Let the Flirting Begin!<span>

I bent over in the water to loosen the bindings, slipped my feet out, and kicked my way back to the boat with my board floating in front of me. As I pulled myself up on the platform, Gary put out one hand to help me - totally unnecessary, since I'd climbed up on the platform a thousand times before with no help.

"I taught her everything she knows," he said loudly enough for the other boys to hear, but looking at me. He gave me this beautiful smile, a secret smile for the two of us to share, and sat down.

"That's bullshit," Paul said.

"I was the one who helped her most with the air raley last summer," my brother said.

"Tough act to follow," Ash said, shrugging on his life vest. I would have treasured his comment forever if I hadn't been high on Gary.

But I was. So I took off my life vest and dropped it on the floor of the boat, sat daintily in the seat where Ash had been, and crossed my legs. Like my fingers had a mind of their own, they bent inward and rubbed my palm where Gary had touched me. I tingled all over at the thought.

Or maybe I tingled because my body was still jacked from how hard I'd worked on my muscles out on the water. Either way, I felt so lovely and sated just then, with the sun in my eyes. I wished Ash weren't jumping in for his turn.

Because watching Ash wakeboard was not relaxing. He wasn't careful when wakeboarding. Or in general. He was opposite of careful. His life was one big episode of _Jackass_. He would do anything on a dare, so the older boys dared him a lot. My role in this game was to run and tell their mom. If I'd been able to run faster when we were kids, I might have saved Ash from a broken arm, several cracked ribs, and a couple of snake bites.

Knowing this, it might not take a lot of sense that Mr. Ketchum let us wakeboard for the marina. But we'd come to wakeboarding only gradually. When we first started out, it was more like _Look at the very young children on water skis! How adorable!_ One time the local newspaper ran a photo of me and Ash on the waterskiing double, each of us holding up an American Flag. It's okay for you to gag now. I can take it.

But Mr. Ketchum was no fool. He understood things changed. After the second time Ash broke his collar bone, Mr. Ketchum put us under strict orders not to get hurt, because it was bad for business. Customers might not be so eager to buy a wakeboard and all the equipment if they witnessed our watery death. To enforce his rule, the punishment for bleeding in the boat was that we had to clean the boat.

Ash cleaned the boat a lot last summer.

At the end of the boat, Ash signaled that he was ready to go. I told Paul, who was driving now. He started too slow, and Ash tried to get up too fast. "Down," I called.

"Come on, LD," Gary muttered as if Ash were right in front of him. Even though I'd heard this joke one billion times and didn't think it was funny what so ever, I made sure to look over at Gary and laugh until he saw me laughing. He laughed too.

Ash had attention deficit disorder. This was why I didn't see him a lot during the school year. I was in all the advanced classes - honors English, honors Science, honors World History, and Geometry - and he definitely was not. Gary had lots of fun with this. The boys actually called Ash ADD to his face. They called him LD (for Learning Disability). They called him SAS (for Short Attention Span). They told him the short bus was coming for him. He had a prescription to help in concentrate in school, but he refused to take it because it made him feel dead. In other words, he was perfectly happy with ADD. Or he would have been, if they boys had left him alone about it.

Sometimes I thought he took stupid risks to make up for being slow in school. Or maybe he was just like that. The boys told him if he improved his grades, when he graduated he could apply to pirate school.

Paul brought the boat around and straightened the rope. I told him Ash was ready to go. This time they got it right. Ash got up. Immediately he told me to speed up, and I told Paul. Ash did a tantrum blind, which meant he back-flipped where he couldn't see his and ended up with his back to the boat. He preferred tricks with a blind landing. He told me to speed up again, and I told Paul. Ash did a turn to blind, touched down the edge of his board, and miraculously managed not to fall.

"Good save!" Drew shouted from the front of the bow.

"Dumb luck," Gary said.

I smiled at Gary. I would feel guilty later about laughing, as I always did when I laughed at Gary's mean jokes. But while I was there with him, he was so charming, and I couldn't help but laugh.

When I looked back at Ash again, he was in the middle of a 540 blind, which was fine, but for the love of God, he hardly had time to land before he hit the rails on the pontoon boat. I waved to get his attention, and then swiped my finger across my throat: _cut it out._ He signaled for me to speed up.

I told Paul, "Ash would like to spend this summer in traction. Speed up."

I turned back around in my seat to watch Ash again. Gary was leaning toward me in his seat, watching me, "Cold?" he asked me.

Pardon? Yeah, the ninety-degree afternoon and ninety-percent humidity always gave me a chill I couldn't shake. But one delicate brain cell in the back of my head told me he was _flirting_ with me and I should _feign helplessness._

"I'm freezing!" I squealed. And just like that, Gary Ketchum moved across to my side of the aisle and scooted against me in my seat until I made room for him. He put his hot bare arm around my shoulders. And I fainted.

No, I didn't really. But I did feel dazed, perhaps from the hyperventilation. Suddenly I realized Ash had been gesturing wildly at me for several seconds without it even gesturing me. He signaled me to slow down. I told Paul.

Ash did a front flip. Gary said in my ear, "Gosh, I've never seen anyone do_ that_ before. Makes me want to buy a wakeboard from Ketchum's Marina!" I giggled. Ash signaled for me to slow down, and I told Paul.

Ash did a back roll with a grab. Gary put his free hot hand on my bare knee and whispered, "You don't believe Ash's bigger than me, do you?"

This time I missed a beat. I was used to locker room humor. But Gary directing locker room humor at _me_, flirting with _me_? It seemed unlikely that Stage Two: Bikini had worked so quickly. Was I reading him wrong? Ash gave me the thumbs-down, and I told Paul to slow the boat one more time.

Just as I turned back around, Ash launched into what could only be an S-bend, which was absolutely impossible to land with the boat going this slowly.

Gary, Drew and I all swore at once, and watched Ash's long, slow death splash with interest and resignation.

"Down," I called to Paul.

Gary gave me the funniest look that said no shit. I laughed out loud. He smiled again as he found his board and slipped over the back of the boat to the platform.

Ash emerged from the depths, vaulted over the side of the boat, and stood close to my seat so he dripped on my formerly comfy, sun-dried self. He commented, "S-bend or what?"

"Or what?" Paul said. "What the hell were you doing, trying it that slow?"

"Sometimes I want to try new things," Ash said. "Sometimes I want to do things I know are bad for me, just for fun and profit. Don't you, Dawn?"

I gazed way up at him and gave him a look that said, _Stay out of my net, little dolphin._ He grinned right back at me, defiant.

"Yeah, Ash," I said. "Sometimes I like to stick my finger in a light socket to see what will happen."

He pointed at me. "Exactly." Without another word to me, he took off his life vest and handed it to Gary.

Gary got up on his first try without any trouble. He never attempted any tricks he couldn't do perfectly. We always ended exhibitions with him. We could count on him to do impressive moves, but nothing he couldn't land.

That's why I watched in disbelief when, after a few flips, he launched an air raley. Surely he wasn't doing it just because I had landed one. Or maybe he was, and this was his way of teasing me. Anything I could do, he could do better.

Except he couldn't.

He panicked at the edge of his trick. Overcorrecting, he _did_ lose his balance. He face-planted in the lake, rocking the pontoon boat with a splash.

"Down," called Paul, who was spotting.

"I'll say," agreed my brother.

Ash, who was driving now, brought the boat around. When he cut the motor and the stereo down, he, Paul, and Drew, cheered and clapped for Gary almost as hard as they'd clapped for me. I wished they would quit. I didn't want Gary mad. Flirting with him was turning out to be a lot harder than I'd thought.

Gary grinned at them from the water. Even though his turn hadn't been very long, clearly he'd had enough. He took off his life vest and tossed it up into the boat. Then he disappeared under the surface.

"What's he doing?" I asked, leaning over the side of the boat, searching for him beneath the water. If the tow rope had gotten tangled, he might need help. And _someone_ would need to go in the water and get him, perhaps accidently sliding against him down where no one else could see.

_"Boo!"_ A handful of bryozoa rushed up at me from the lake.

I screamed (for once I didn't have to think about this girl-reaction) and fell backward into the boat. Gary hefted himself over the side with one arm, holding the bryozoa high in the other hand. It dripped green slime through his fingers. "Bwa-ha-ha!" He came after me.

I squealed again. It was so unbelievably fantastic that he was flirting with me, but bryozoa was involved. Was it worth it?

No.

I paused on the side of the boat, ready to jump back into the water myself. He might chase me around the lake with bryozoa, but at least it would be diluted. On second thought, I didn't particularly want to jump into the very waters the bryozoa had come from.

Gary solved the problem for me. He slipped behind me and showed me that he was holding the ties of my bikini in his free hand. If I jumped, Gary would take possession of my bikini top.

I knew I should have double knotted my top this morning. But I didn't because I didn't think he would actually do something like this.

I wish I would have followed my instincts this morning.

Gary brought the dripping slime close to my shoulder. "Go ahead and jump," he said, twisting my bikini ties in his fingers.

"Gary," came Drew's voice in warning. This surprised me. My brother had never taken up for me before. Of course, none of the boys had ever crossed this particular line.

But that was nothing compared with my surprise when the bryozoa suddenly lobbed out of Gary's hand, sailed through the air, and plopped into the lake. Ash, standing behind me, must have shoved him.

This meant I owed Ash my gratitude for saving me. Except I didn't want him to save me from Gary, and I thought I had made that clear. Saving me from Gary with bryozoa...that was an iffier proposition. I wasn't sure whether I should give Ash the little dolphin look again when our eyes met. But it didn't matter. When I turned around, he was already stepping over Paul's legs to return to the driver's seat.

Gary was watching me, though. And Gary wiped the bryozoa residue from his hand across my stomach. This was the third time a boy had ever touched my bare tummy, and I'd had enough.

Through gritted teeth, like any extra movement might spread the bryozoa further across my skin, I told him, "I like you less than I did." I bailed over the side of the boat - the side opposite where the bryozoa returned to its native habitat. Deep in the warm water, I scrubbed at my tummy with both hands. A combination of bryozoa waste and Gary germs: it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Something dove into the water beside me in a rush if bubbles. I came up for air. Gary resurfaced too, tossing sparking drops of water from his hair. "You still like me a lot, though, right?"

"No prob. Green is the new black." Giving up on getting clean, I swam a few strokes back towards the platform to get out again. What I needed was a shower with chlorinated water and disinfectant soap. I might need to bubble out my belly button with hydrogen peroxide.

"What if I made it up to you?" He splashed close behind me. "What if I helped you get clean? We don't want you dirty." He moved both hands around me under the water, and up and down my tummy.

It was the _fourth_ time a boy had touched my tummy! And it was very awkward. He bobbed so close behind me that I had a hard time treading water without kicking him. I needed to choose between flirting and breathing.

Paul and my brother leaned over the side of the boat and gaped at us, which didn't help matters. I'd been afraid of this. Flirting with Gary was no fun if the other boys acted like we were lepers. Well, okay, it was fun, but not as fun as it was supposed to be.

Obviously I would need to give Green the _little dolphin_ talk. I wasn't sure I could do this with Paul - Paul and I didn't have heart-to-heart convos - but I might need to make an exception, if he continued to watch us like we were a dirty movie on TV (which I'd also seen a lot of. Life with boys).

_BEEEEEEEEEE-_

Gary and I started and turned toward the boat. Still behind the steering wheel, Ash had his chin in his hand and his elbow on the horn.

_-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

Damn it! I turned to face Gary and gave him a wry smile, but he had already taken his hands away from my tummy. The horn really ruined the mood.

_-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

Gary hauled himself up onto the platform. I followed close behind him, and (glee!) he put out a hand to help me. Paul and my brother yelled at Ash.

_-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!_

"Oh!" Ash said as if he had no idea he'd been laying on the horn. He looked at his elbow like it belonged to someone else.

I was in the boat with Gary now, and he was still holding my hand. Or, maybe I was clinging to his hand, but this is a question of semantics. In any case, I pulled him by the hand past the other boys to the bow. We didn't have privacy. There was no privacy on a wakeboarding boat. At least we had the boat's windshield between us and the others.

As I turned to sit down on the bench, I stuck out my tongue at Ash behind the windshield. He crossed his eyes at me.

Gary sat very close to me again. He pretended to yawn and stretch, then put his arm around my shoulders. I smiled at him and tried to think of something to say. After years of him being vaguely pleasant to me but basically ignoring me, it had never occurred to me that we had nothing in common but wakeboarding - and I suspected wakeboarding might be a touchy subject right now.

We didn't need to talk. He kept his arm around me for the short ride back to the marina.

Instead of driving straight to the wharf where we usually parked the boat, Ash slowed at the marina dock so the boys could mock Mr. Ketchum, who hadn t moved from the position he'd been in when I splashed him, except he'd started on another beer.

The boys told him he was all washed up and he should never enter a wet T-shirt contest with that figure, and so forth. My brother called to dad, "Nice save, Dad!"

"Hey." Dad tipped his beer to us. "You've got to be fast with Dawn around."

"I have to say, young lady," grumbled Mr. Ketchum. "I was very impressed with your shenanigans. Right up to the point I got splashed. I want you to plan to close the Crappie Festival show until further notice."

Which meant, "Until you screw up." That was okay. He'd told me I was better than the boys at something for once in my life! I turned to Gary and beamed so my cheeks hurt.

Gary squinted in the sun, wearing that strange, fixed smile. Even my brother and Paul gave each other puzzled looks rather than congratulating me again. Only Ash met my eyes. He shook his head at me.

Oh shit! I had upset the natural order. After Ash had already set the natural order in team calisthenics. I should have thought all of this through better.

Gary began, "But I didn't get a chance to-"

"I saw what happened," Mr. Ketchum told him. "You had your chance."

"Race you to the wharf," Ash called. Mr. Ketchum said something to my dad, put his beer down, and tried to hurl himself up the steps to the marina faster than Ash idled the boat.

The boys were doofuses, and it was genetic. Ash let Mr. Ketchum win by half a length, touching the bow of the boat to the padded edge of the wharf just after Mr. Ketchum dashed past. The boys howled and someone threw a couple of dollar bills at Mr. Ketchum. He picked up each bill and limped back down the stairs toward my dad.

Then Gary jumped out of the bow to tie up the boat. He, Paul, and my brother tried to trip each other as they took armfuls of equipment into the warehouse with them. No one gave me a single backward glance.

Ash cut the engine off. "Now you've screwed up."

"How?" I asked casually, stepping out the boat. "You think Gary won't want to go out with me now that I've taken his spot in the show?"

Ash just looked at me. That's _exactly_ what he thought. I was getting tired of his warnings about Gary. I gathered my clothes and my backpack, turned on my heel, and flounced away. Which was fairly ineffective with bare feet, on a rough concrete wharf.

"You'll see at the party tonight," Ash called after me.

_"No you'll see,"_ I threw over my shoulder. Gary and his pride would prove no match for Stage Three: Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Top.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Hm~ what does Dawn have up her sleeve for the party? ;) You will just have to wait and find out next week when I update! Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter! Please review and tell me what you think :D<strong>

**- Angel ^_***


	5. Gary or What?

**Author's Notes: Update time :D Finally I got to the chapter I wanted to get to ;) This chapter is kind of the point where everything starts.**

**So without further ado, you may read and I hope you enjoy :)**

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><p><span>Gary or What?<span>

As I walked the short distance home, my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my bag without hurrying. The only people that ever called my phone were my Dad, my brother, assorted Ketchums to tell me to come early or late to work (including Gary, but he always sounded grumpy when he had to call me, so it wasn't as big of a thrill as you'd think), May to tell me to come early or late to practice, and Joy.

I glanced at the caller ID and clicked the green button to pick up my phone. "What's up Joy?"

From the time Mom died until I was eleven, Joy the au pair had hung out in the background of my life.

"I'm on the dock," she said.

I peered the half-mile across the lake and waved to her. I could hardly see her in the distance.

"The children and I watched the last part of your wakeboarding run," she said. "You improved so much since last year!"

"Thanks! But that's not why you called. You're dying to know what happened with Gary."

Joy was in on my Life Makeover. Not the fashion part - she isn't the best person to go to get clothes advice from...just saying. I went over to her house every week or so and told her how my plan was coming along, and she told me I was being ridiculous and it would never work. I guess I went to her because I wanted to hear some motherly input. We had the perfect relationship. She wasn't really my mother, so I could listen to her input and then do the opposite. The difference between me and girls with mothers was that I didn't get in trouble for this.

"Let me guess," she said. "When Gary saw you in a bikini, he acted incrementally more cozy to you, therefore you expected him to profess his love. You honestly did. And he didn't do a thing."

"Rrrrrnt!" I made that game-show noise they make when someone gets for saying the wrong answer. I told her what really happened.

"What?" she said when I told her Gary wiped out. As I got to the part about Gary touching my tummy _repeatedly_, she interrupted me so often that I had to throw in a frustrated fit. I hate when people interrupt me.

I threw the phone on the grass and hollered across the lake, "LET. ME. FINISH!" _Inish, inish, inish_, said my echo. I picked up the phone and told her the rest of the story, ending with my plan of Stage Three that night.

"But you don't really think that wearing a low-cut top to the boys' party will solve all your problems, do you?" she asked.

"Of course not, I said. I think wearing a low-cut top to the boys' party will show Gary that I'm ready for him."

"Dawn, no girl is ever ready for a boy like Gary. How were finals?" Clearly she wanted to change the subject to impress upon me that boys were not all there was to a teenage girl's life.

Psht. As if.

"Finals?" I asked.

"Yes, finals. To graduate tenth grade? You took them yesterday."

Wow, it was hard to believe I'd played hopscotch with the quadric equation only twenty-seven hours ago. Thinking back, it seemed like I'd sleepwalked through the past nine months to school, compared with everything that happened today.

Time flew when you were having Gary.

Mr. Ketchum let the boys throw a party at their house every Friday night during the summers. He reasoned that if they were home, they weren't out drag racing the pink truck against Mrs. Ketchum's car. So I'd been to a million of these parties. It should have been old hat. Yet it was new hat. I had put on my seductress bonnet. Ha! Not really. This would have dented my hair, which I'd blown out long, straight and bryozoa free.

We'd had a lot of rain in May, which made the lake full, the grass lush, the trees happy, and the ground soft. Walking through my yard into the boys' yard in heels was like wading in the lake where the sand was deep, feet sinking with every step.

Then I saw Ash and Misty under a huge oak tree.

I did a double take. Ash pressed Misty against the tree, kissing her. Deeply.

This shouldn't have surprised me. They'd been together for a month. He was my age, and she was a year younger, so neither of them had a driver's license. But they met at the arcade or the bowling alley. I'd even seen them kiss before, a quick peck. I'd just never seen them kiss like this.

Knowing Ash, I would have thought his love life would be like every other part of his life: dangerous. It started that way. Since middle school, he'd followed in Gary's footsteps, coming to a different girl every week. I had imagined this would continue as Ash got older. The only difference between Ash and Gary would be that Ash would get in a lot of fist fights with girls' ex-boyfriends in the movie theater parking lot.

Instead, he'd been with Misty for a month. A whole month! It seemed stable. Even boring. Well! Maybe her own budding womanhood had brought out the pirate in him. Yaarg!

He broke the kiss, turned, and stared at me as if I had no right to watch what was going on in a public place. That's when I realized I was staring at _them._ Standing still in the middle of the yard, just staring, my heels in the dirt. Watching him kiss Misty bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. There was nothing to do but wade to the front porch of his house.

I rang the doorbell.

Nothing happened.

After a few minutes, I pressed my ear to the door and rang the doorbell again. I definitely heard the chime of the doorbell inside, the bass beat from the stereo, and laughter. Why didn't someone come to the door? Maybe they had a closed-circuit camera on me right now and everybody at the party was watching me on TV, taking bets on how long I'd stand there before wading home. I peered into the top corners of the porch for a camera.

Why hadn't I dispensed with the last three coats of eyes shadow and gone with my brother to the party when he told me he was leaving the house, like usual? He was a dork, but at least he was totally comfortable in social situations, like Dad. Comfortable, or oblivious, which amounted to the same thing.

The door swung open, revealing May.

"Maaaaay" I squealed, hugging her. This was what girls did.

"Daaaaawn" she said in her husky, low-key voice, playing along. "I figured someone had better open the door, because you obliviously weren't going to. Why'd you ring the doorbell? No one's ringing the doorbell. They just walk in. Besides, don't you practically live here?"

Did I? I supposed I knew the territory, and always hoped someone in the house noticed me.

I changed the subject. "What are you doing here? Are you friends with Gary or Ash or Paul?"

She knitted her eyebrows at me. "I'm friends with, _you_."

"Right!" I said. Was she? I fought the urge to look behind me, like she'd actually been talking to someone over my shoulder the whole time.

"You look great!" she said, pulling me through the doorway and into the foyer. "Cute top, and your eye shadow looks great!"

"Thanks!" I watched her reaction to make sure she'd said what I'd thought she said. The music was loud, and _you look great_ was not something I heard every day, or every year.

"You weren't planning to wear mascara?" she asked. "Usually, when people wear eye shadow and eye liner that heavy, they wear mascara with it."

"I do have some! I forgot! Thank you!" I grabbed her hand and she flinched but I didn't let go. "Will you come with me to my house to make sure I put it on right? I'm serious."

Her eyes moved past me out the door, toward my house. "You live next door, right?" Clearly she didn't want to venture too far from the party with a weird-eyed lunatic such as myself.

"Noo~" I said sarcastically. "I live in another region. Come on!" I pulled her toward my house until she seemed to be keeping pace with me. Then I dropped her hand. I knew girls pulled each other by the hand and squealed a lot, but it was too weird for me to do it for long.

Ash and Misty were still making out. They'd moved behind the tree where I wouldn't have seen them unless I'd been looking for them (which I was). I almost pointed them out to May, and then decided against it. I didn't want to sound like a fifth grader: _Wow, kissing!_

"You really do look cute," May said, "other than the - you know. Why the makeover?"

I took a deep breath and readied myself for my next step into girldom: spilling a giggly secret. When we'd gotten far enough away from Ash and Misty so that they couldn't hear me, I said, "I have a crush on somebody and I'm trying to get him to notice me."

"Gary Ketchum?"

I stopped abruptly in my garage, and May ran full force into me. I shoved her and shrieked, _"Why would you think that?"_

"Gee, I don't know," she yelled back. "Maybe because _you have told me this over and over!"_

I blinked. "I have?"

"Maybe not in so many words."

Oh no! "So, I've been really obvious at school?" I tried to keep most of the horror from my voice.

"Isn't everyone?" She flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "Girls fall all over themselves when Gary comes around. He's hot and sooo~ sweet."

"He sounds like fondue." Mmmm, fondue. I opened the door and led the way into my house.

I didn't think we were being quiet, particularly. High heels may have looked dainty, but they didn't sound that way on a tile floor. Maybe it was just that my dad was so absorbed in the conversation on his cell phone. For whatever reason, when we emerged from the kitchen into the living room, he started, and he stuffed the phone down by his side in the cushions. I was sorry I'd startled him, but it really was funny to see this big manly man jump three feet off the couch when he saw two teenage girls. I mean, it would have been funny if I weren't so sad now.

Dad was a ferocious lawyer in court. Out of court, he was one of those Big Man on Campus types who shook hand with everybody. A lot like Gary, actually. There were only two things Dad was afraid of. First, he wigged out when anything in the house was misplaced. I won't even go into all the arguments we'd had about my room being a mess. They'd ended when I told him it was _my_ room, and if he didn't stop bugging me about it, I would put kitchen utensils in the wrong drawers, maybe even _hide_ some (cue horror movie music). No sppons for you! Second, he was easily startled, and very pissed off afterward.

"Damn it, Dawn!" He hollered.

"It's great to see you too, loving father of mines. I have brought my friend May to witness our domestic bliss. She's on the tennis team with me." Actually, I was on the tennis team with her.

"Hello, May. It's nice to meet you," Dad said without getting up or shaking her hand or anything else he would normally do. While the two of them recited a few more lines of polite nonsense, I watched my dad. From the angle of his body, I could tell he was protecting that cell phone behind the cushions.

I nodded toward the hiding place. "Hot date?"

I was totally kidding. I didn't expect him to say, "When?"

So I said, "Ever." And then realized I'd brought up a subject that I didn't want to bring up, especially not while I was busy being self-absorbed. I clapped my hands. "Okay, then! May and I are going upstairs very loudly, and after a few minutes we will come back down, ringing a cowbell. Please continue with your top secret phone conversation. No one's listening."

I turned and headed for the stairs. May followed me. I thought Dad might order me back, send May out, and give me one of those lectures about my attitude (who, me?). But obviously he was talking with Pamela Anderson and couldn't wait for me to leave the room. Behind us, I heard him say, "I'm sorry. I'm still here. Dawn came in. Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try."

"He seems jumpy," May whispered on the stairs.

"Always," I said.

"Do you have a lot of explosions in your house?"

I glanced at my watch. "Not this early." I passed through my bedroom, into my bathroom, and found the mascara in the drawer. Poised with wand to eye, I realized May hadn't followed me. I leaned through the bathroom doorway.

She stood in the middle of my bedroom, gazing around with wide eyes. I hadn't made my bed. In three years. And the walls were covered with wakeboarding posters, snowboarding posters, and surfing posters (I was going to learn how to surf and snowboard someday, too). It all might have been overwhelming at first - not exactly _House Beautiful._

"Is this Drew's room?" she asked.

"What! No. Green is a neat freak! Also he collects dolls."

She turned her wide eyes on me.

"Kidding! I'm kidding," I backtracked. Why did I have to make up stuff like that? My family was weird enough for real.

She stepped over to my bookshelf to peer at the tons of stacks of wakeboarding magazines. Well, let her stare, the bi-yotch. I didn't need her damn help! I swiped the mascara across my lashes and popped back out of the bathroom. "Ready?"

She looked up at me guiltily like she'd gotten caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. Standing at my nightstand, she held the photo of my mother.

She set the photo down and narrowed her eyes at me. "_You're_ not ready." She came into the bathroom and explained the aesthetic we were going for was not clumps of lashes honed to points and sticking out from my eyeballs. Somehow in the purchase of my fine cosmetics, I'd missed out on the idea of an eyelash comb. She uses a regular hair comb to tease my eyes lashes apart.

We stomped back down the stairs (no cowbell but I made enough noise to warn my dad) and waded across the yard. Ash and Misty were still making out behind the tree, like they hadn't seen each other for a year. Jeez, we'd just gotten out of school yesterday.

I tried to look without really looking and letting on to May I was looking. Both Ash's hands were on Misty's shoulders, holding her in place while he kissed her. Both her hands were under his t-shirt, on his stomach - his stomach hard with muscle, his smooth tanned skin...I couldn't see this, of course, but I knew it was there.

It had never occurred to me to be jealous of Misty before. Suddenly I was burning with jealousy, sweating in the humid night. It must be that I saw Misty as an under-study for Leaf and Giselle and all the girls at my school who knew what to wear and how to act, or it they didn't, hid it well. I could totally see a third-grade girl feeling inferior to Misty and wanting to be Misty when she grew up. That third-grade girl was thinking someday maybe she could have a boyfriend like Ash, who loved her like Ash.

"Argh!" I bellowed as I fell face-first onto the pine needles. I must have gotten my heel caught in a snake hole.

"Are you okay?" May asked, holding out a hand to help me up. "Nice trick. You should put that in your wakeboarding routine."

"What? And steal Ash's thunder?" I brushed myself off. Did I need to go home and change? I was new to this idea of a "wardrobe," and my supply of Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Tops was limited. Fortunately, my skirt was made to look dirty. It was very me. And the wild pattern in my top concealed any decayed-leaf stains. Satisfied, I walked on with May. I didn't look back to see whether Ash had watched me fall. I hadn't forgotten that stare of his.

"Want to play tennis tomorrow night, after it's cooled off a bit?" she asked.

"Sure," I said before I thought. May and I played tennis all the time in school. Why not out of school, too? After I answered, I realized that of course Gary would ask me out for tomorrow night and I wouldn't get to go with him! Right. I wasn't lucky enough to have problems like that. Silly me. "You shouldn't have to drive all the way down here to pick me up and then drive me all the way back."

"I don't mind," she replied.

Stepping onto the Ketchum's porch, I said, "Green can come get me when we're done." My brother never had anything to do on Saturday night. It ran in the family.

"Drew?" she asked.

We walked back into the party. Fluttering my finely separated lashes, I could hardly believe my luck. Usually at parties I wandered in alone and hoped someone took pity and talked to me. Then, by degrees, I faded into he shadows. Tonight I was entering the party with someone.

Of course, the instant we hit the wall of crowd and sound, she pointed across the dark room and shouted above the music, "I'd forgotten Green was coming back from college! I'm going to say hi." The two people I felt most comfortable hanging with, hanging with each other instead!

Except for a few kids that came to the party, I knew all these people from school. I'd been in school with most of them since kindergarten. For some reason, this didn't help, and possibly made things worse. I watched May weave between the crowds of people and hug my brother. I thought about going after her. But then I might look like I didn't want her to leave me by myself because I wasn't good at talking to people at parties. Imagine!

I saw Gary in the darkness, next to the stairs, with his back to me. He stood a few inches taller than his friends who'd just graduated too, who surrounded him. Gary was always surrounded.

As I crossed the room to him, people kept stepping in my way, wanting to say hey and have conversations with me, of all things. I didn't have time for that right now; I was on a mission.

I made nicey-nicey, go away, and resumed my way across the room, only to have someone else stop me.

By the time I finally reached him, my heart pounded. But it was now or never. I made myself grin at his friends as I slid my hand across his T-shirt, feeling his hard stomach underneath the cotton. I almost flinched at how good and intimate it felt, but through the marvel of my own willpower, I did not flinch. I lay my head playfully against his chest, as I'd seen girls do when they claimed to be just friends with a guy but everyone whispered something more was going on.

I half-expected him to shout, "Get off of me!" and shove me away. Not because Gary would ever do this to a girl - he had more charming way of extricating himself from cretins - but because my life generally had been a long series of mortifications, and Gary shouting in alarm at my embrace would fit right in. The other half of me expected him to chuckle gently, but not make a move on his own quite yet. It might take him a while to get used to the new me.

He didn't chuckle. He didn't shove me away. He did exactly what he was supposed to. He slipped his arm around my waist and drew me closer against his warm body. I felt him nodding at something one of the other guys said, but he didn't say a word to me or anyone. As if greetings like this from me was the most natural thing in the world. He smelled even better than usual, too, just a hint on cologne.

I snuggled close against him, nose close to his arm, scented chest, and enjoyed a few more seconds of this tingling bliss. What heaven if my whole summer could be like this.

His low voice vibrating through my body, he asked his friends, "Have you been watching football? Patriots or what?"

Oh God, I was hugging _Ash!_

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: xD Left you guys with a small cliffhanger Lol! Do you guys get why the chapter is called "Gary or What?" xD Hopefully you do. Since I'm on Spring break, I'm going to update twice this week :D So maybe I'll update Thursday. Then you won't have to wait long to see what happens next since she's hugging <em>Ash<em> instead of_ Gary..._**

**Please review :D I love your feedback!**

**- Angel :)**


	6. Or What?

**Author's Notes: Thank you guys for the reviews last chapter :D I loved your reactions when you read Dawn hugged Ash instead of Gary...and that leads to the question...Where's Gary? ;) though, you should already know..**

**Last chapter: Dawn hugged the wrong _Ketchum_ :O and this is what happens...**

**Read on ;)**

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><p><span>Or What?<span>

I quickly jerked away from him when I heard his voice instead of Gary's. And almost instantly I realized I should not have jerked away from him, because the situation would be slightly less mortifying if I pretended I'd known it was Ash all along.

Before I could take another step away, he caught my elbow.

"Later," he said to the guys. He pulled me into a corner and bent down to whisper in my ear. "Someone's blushing."

I parted my lips to say something. I didn't seem to be taking in enough oxygen through my nose. "I'm sunburned," I breathed out.

"No...you thought I was Gary." He was smiling, enjoying my discomfort too much for my taste.

"No, I didn't." I made an effort to slow down my breathing through my nose or mouth. My bosom was heaving, I tell you. I had a heaving bosom!

And Ash definitely noticed. He focused on the V of the slinky shirt I was wearing that was meant for his brother, not him, and he slowly dragged his brown eyes up to meet mines again. "I should've said something, but I didn't realize what was happening at first. And then, when I did, I was really enjoying myself."

"Shut up. I didn't think you were Gary."

"You thought I was Gary, because I'm as big as him." He winked at me.

Now that I was staring up at him, there was no mistaking him for Gary. I tried to figure out why I mistaked him for Gary in the first place. It could've been his height compared with the boys two years older than him. But something else was different about Ash. He was more confident. More relaxed. More tingle-worthy like Gary had always been. Those friendly prickles spread across my chest again as Ash's fingers moved a little, reminding me he still held my elbow.

I reluctantly pulled out of his grip. "It's not funny, Ash! What if Misty finds out? Someone might tell her you were hugging me...the way you were."

"She won't mind. She knows we're just friends."

From my end, the hug hand't felt like we were friends. It had felt like we were teetering on the very edge of friendship, about to tumble down a waterfall into depths unknown. With rocks hidden underneath the water. Hard rocks.

Or _I_ was about to take a tumble, by myself. _He_ still stood in his living room like always, at the edge of his crowded party, lauging down at me, thinking, _The Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Top has cut off the blood supply to Dawn Berlitz's brain._

I reached up to Ash's neck. Surprise finally flashed in his eyes - ha!- but he let me pull the pokeball pendant on the chain out from under his shirt.

"You make sure this is out at all times," I said. "It's like your cowbell. It tells me when you're coming." I winked at him and patted his chest, which I should not have done if we were just friends.

As we've established, my brain was walking a few steps behind my body and couldn't quite catch up. Face still burning, I took a few steps back into the crowd and looked around in search of Gary. Where would he be right now? Flirting with Leaf and Giselle? I looked at the girls across the room. There was no sign of Gary. In fact, the girls were dancing and laughing with each other.

I stopped suddenly and walked back to Ash who was watching me very closely.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You're right," I said. "Misty won't mind us hugging."

"What do you mean?"

"She's in the side yard...making out with Gary."

By the time I'd kicked off my heels and dashed outside after Ash, he'd already gotten himself pinned flat on his back under Gary on the pine needles. I winced as Gary shifted to get better leverage and pressed his forearm harder across Ash's neck.

"Gary!" I shouted, running all the way around them, trying to find a way in. Sometimes I couldn't pull Gary off Ash, or I even got hit myself. There was a time when I would have tried to anyway, disregarding my safety. But that was when we were all very small and made of rubber. Nowadays, hollering was more effective, unless they were really into it, in which case nothing would work.

They were really into it.

Ash managed to kick Gary off him and punch Gary in his chin. Usually they didn't hit each other in the face because Mrs. Ketchum would see the bruises and they would get in trouble. Ash must be angry enough tonight to not care.

Gary came right back with a punch to Ash's gut. While Ash was absorbing that one, Gary pinned Ash's arm high behind him, tripped him, forced him to the ground, and put one knee on his back. Tonight Gary was being more aggressive than usual, intent on causing more pain.

Or - something wasn't right. Had they switched shirts? Surely not. Gary didn't let Ash borrow his clothes. Slowly it dawned on me that Gary was Ash and Ash was Gary.

For the first time ever, Ash was kicking Gary's ass.

"Holy shit!" I said. "Ash, let go of him!"

Ash looked up at me, his brown eyes shadowed in the dark between the trees, pokeball necklace swinging at his neck.

That gave Gary the perfect opportunity to get Ash off him. He snatched Ash down to the ground and punched him.

"Gary," I said, stepping close over them again. They weren't listening to me. I looked over at Misty who had her hand over her mouth. "Misty, a little help?" I called.

She stared at me with big eyes like she had _no idea_ what I was talking about. She'd been with Ash for a month and she'd never seen one of his fights with Gary?

"Call Ash off!" I yelled at her. "Or Gary. Whichever one you can get!" Both.

"Gary, stop," she said in a whiny little voice that couldn't have reprimanded a Chihuahua.

"Forget it!" I knelt down and shouted directly at Ash and Gary, on their level. "I'll go get your dad! Your dad will come down into your party and cuss at you in front of your friends!"

They didn't even slow down. Whoever was on top had the other in a choke hold so real, the victim was turning red.

"I'll go get your mom!"

Ash gave Gary a final shake and stood up quickly, before Gary could catch his leg and pull him down. "What is the _matter_ with you?" Ash screamed.

Yeah. What was the _matter_ with Gary? He was making out with Misty, that's what. This was terrible! It blew my theory out of the water that Gary had never asked me out because I was too young for him. Misty was a year younger than _me!_

Normally I would have given up and slunk home. He'd flirted with _me_ just that afternoon! He'd wiped bryozoa on me!

Luckily, this was no normal night. Tonight I was on a mission. So I reasoned that all wasn't lost. Maybe Gary had flirted with me because he was overcome by my charms and wit, but he didn't see me as the girlfriend type. After all, I'd never been anyone's girlfriend. Misty didn't have this problem. Gary had watched Misty go out with Ash for a month.

Gary stood up more slowly than Ash had, taking deep, ragged breaths, clearly hurting. I waited for Ash to decide if Gary had had enough of his wrath for now, and turn to Misty. I looked forward to hearing what Ash would call her, to save me the trouble. But he never glanced in her direction. He said again to Gary, "What the hell is the matter with you?" His voice broke.

_Now_ Paul and Drew came jogging through the trees, with May behind them, and more interested spectators from the party. Even though the fight was over, Drew stepped between Gary and Ash. A smart move, because these things had been known to flare up again. Which was exactly what the ring of spectators hoped for. May tried to catch my eye. I shook my head.

Paul took Ash's face in both hands, roughly, and looked at the big smudge under his eye. He let go of Ash and hissed at me, "Get rid of him in case Mom comes down."

I felt honored to be included in the intrigue. But why couldn't Paul ask me to get rid of Gary instead?

That was okay for now. Ash needed me. I put my hand on his back and said, "Walk away." We walked through the yard, toward the side of the house. A pine needle hung from one of his black locks in the back.

After fifteen paces, his breathing slowed almost to normal. I felt him start to turn. "Don't look back," I said.

He took a deep, calming breath through his nose. He was fighting part of ADD that made him short-tempered and impulsive. The part that made him attempt to smash his brother's face in.

"Try not to take it so seriously," I said in what I hoped was a soothing tone. Which was hard for me. "It's probably a temporary thing. He's mad at you for making size jokes this afternoon-"

"I didn't start the size jokes!"

"You finished the size jokes. So he seduced your girlfriend. She said yes because you've been together for a whole month. Maybe things have gotten into a rut." We passed the corner of the house and reached the side year, where no one lingering in front of the yard could see us. I stopped him under the floodlight hanging from the eaves. "Let me look at your eye." I reached up to cup his face in my hands like Paul had, except more gentle.

"Is my mom going to notice?"

_Yes_, I thought. "I can't tell," I said. I didn't want him dashing after Gary to get revenge. "Maybe if we cleaned it up."

He pulled off his T-shirt, wet the edge of it with the faucet attached to the house, and brought it to me.

"Sit down," I said. "I can hardly see you way up there."

We sat on the grass. I leaned close and titled his face to the light, and wiped at the half-dried blood. He watched me with serious eyes.

And I felt that tingle again. That same pesky tingle I'd felt when I hugged him in the living room, when I thought he was Gary. Only I _knew_ now he wasn't Gary. And I'd seen Ash without his shirt off a million times, including hours of no-shirt goodness that very afternoon. The tingle stayed.

This was only natural, I guessed. We both were still pumped full of adrenalin. We were excited about the fight, mad about Gary and Misty, and jealous. I was leaning close to him, our lips almost touching. He still smelled like cologne, plus something sexier.

"Well?" His voice broke again. He cleared his throat and said in his deep boy-voice, "Well?"

"Well, it's not coming off." I gave the oozing blood one last gentle wipe and sat back on my heels. "I'm sorry about what happened."

He shrugged and kept giving me that intense, serious look. And I kept tingling. It was almost like he was sending me his adrenalin telepathically, and I could feel what he was feeling.

Which didn't make sense. Because he ought to be heartbroken about Misty. But this felt _good._

"The fireworks are starting without you." I stood up quickly and held out my hand to help him (for show only - he weighed twice as much as me). He put his shirt back on. Pitty. Keeping my hand on his back, I steered him toward the muffled noise of explosions, down through the shadowy backyard to the dock.

Boys - mostly football players my age or a year older - lit bottle rockets and held them until the fuse sparked almost down to their fingers. At the last possible second, they tossed them into the black lake. A pause. Then deep under the surface, the water glowed bright green for an instant. They said _foop_.

Ash would probably ask me to help him collect the bottle rocket sticks off the lake bottom tomorrow, another one of his dad's rules. I didn't want to do this, because I'd had an unpleasant bryozoa scare climbing up the ladder of their dock last year. But I preferred the boys shooting bottle rockets into the lake to shooting them toward my yard, which tended to give my dad a nervous breakdown. And I couldn't ask them to stop altogether. Ash got testy if he went more than a few weeks without setting something on fire.

The boys shouted greetings to Ash and shared their bottle rockets with him. He watched the sparks with delight and hardly a hint of evil. Then he handed me a bottle rocket and lit it for me with a lighter from his pocket. I finally relaxed. We forgot all about Misty and Gary.

For a little while.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: First, never try a bottle rocket! I almost died once <strong>**trying to fire one -_-**

**Anyways, Some good pearlshipping here :D and it pretty much starts from here ;) So, who actually expected Ash and Gary to fight?... Over _Misty_ in this case? ;) (Other than Shadowkittyxx because I told her.)**

**Please review and tell me what you think! :D I can't wait to read your reviews, as always xD**

**I wish I could update tomarrow, because I really~ can't wait to put the next chapter up ;) I think everyone will absolutely like that chapter. ;)...but It's only half done -.- so sometime next week it'll be updated :D**

**Oh yeah, Shadowkittyxx wanted me to say something about her so I am: SHE'S AWESOME :D and I FREAKING LOVE HER! She's my best friend! And she's sooo hilarious XD. We have, like, everything in common, I think we're secretly twins O.o...but anyways xD I'm so glad I met her :D. And also - I just have to say this because it's awesome! ^_^ - read her story "Washed Up Popstars" I honestly think it's one of the best pearlshipping stories ever. No lie! I'm not just saying that xD. So check it out :D**

**Alright I'm done xD. Please review :) Until next week...**

**- Angel :D**


	7. The Plan

**Author's Notes: Heelloooo lovely readers :D. ****This originally wasn't going to be updated today but since shadowkittyxx updated her story (finally -_-) I had to update mine. It was a deal. So thank her for this chapter today :D**

**So last chapter, Ash and Gary had a fight or "Punch on" *cough* *Shadowkittyxx ;)* and Gary stole Ash's girlfriend. Mean right? :o I'd be pissed if it happened to me! So, here's what happens next... ;)**

**Enjoy! ^_^**

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><p><span>The Plan...<span>

During the school year, Giselle and Leaf had said micro-miniskirts should be the official tennis team uniform because we could move better during the games, and material wouldn't get bunched between our legs like it did with shorts. I'd never had the material-bunching problem myself. I figured Giselle and Leaf made this up so they'd have an excuse to wear micro-miniskirts to class when we had a tennis meet right after school. Thank God they'd graduated and I was (mostly) rid of them. For me, tennis and fashion didn't mix.

Normally I would have worn gym shorts and one of Ash's huge T-shirts to play tennis with May. However, the tennis court sat between the high school and the main road through town, which also ran past the movie theater, the arcade, and the bowling alley. If Gary was out with Misty, he would drive right by. So it was the official tennis team micro-miniskirt for me.

"Is that part of you makeover to catch Gary? Wearing that skirt when you're not forced to?" May asked as we passed each other, changing ends of the court. We were the only idiots playing tennis on a ninety-degree Saturday night, so we had the court to ourselves. Besides the ball bouncing and the rackets whacking, the only sounds were the cars swishing by on the road and the buzz of floodlights overhead. Still, the echo off the asphalt court made it hard for us to hear each other while we played. So we'd been carrying on a conversation like this for an hour, one sentence every two games when we traded sides.

She beat me twice, and we passed each other at the net again. "I'll admit it's not much," I said. "I need a new plan, also referred to as The Back-Up Plan When Stage Three: Cleavage Has No Effect on Cradle Robbers. Any advice?"

I won one game, and then she beat me again. As we approached the net, she suggested, "Make him jealous? I don't know. I'm no good at being sneaky and going behind people's backs."

I dropped my racket with a clatter on the court. "Don't look now" - which of course was her cue to look - "but maybe my old plan worked after all! Gary dumped Misty already, and the pink truck is coming for me!"

The pink truck was an enormous pickup that used to belong to the marina, so old that the red paint had faded to pink and the_ KETCHUM'S MARINA _signs had peeled off the sides. Paul had taken possession of the pink truck when he turned sixteen. We gave him no end of hell about it. Then, when he graduated from high school, his parents gave him a new truck to take to college, and Gary inherited the pink truck.

Gary, being Gary, had managed to make the pink truck seem cool. There were many rumors around school about the adventures of Gary in the pink truck with Leaf or Giselle. I had dreamed of my own adventures in the pink truck. Now my dreams had come true!

Except that in my dreams, I was not a dork. "Gary came to pick me up!" I groaned. "This is terrible. What do I do?"

"Act casual," May said in a level tone, watching the truck park just outside the high chain-link fence. "Interested, but not maniac."

"How do I do that? I don't know how to do that!"

"Go hug him hello!"

Just then a breeze kissed the back of my neck under my ponytail, reminding me how hot the night was, and how heavily I'd exerted myself chasing May's serves. "I'm sweaty."

"If he likes you, he won't mind." She led the way through the gate and headed for Drew's side of the truck to distract him for me.

As I walked toward Gary's side, Gary opened the door and started to get out. I had to walk all the way around the big, heavy door to hug- "_Ash!"_

He looked down at me, arms open wide for me because I'd been holding mine out. He dropped his arms when he saw the look on my face. "Nice to see you, too," he said grumpily.

I patted him lightly on one cheek - the cheek opposite the one with the blue bruise under his eye. The pats got harder until I was pretty much slapping him. "Why can't you be Gary? Oh, God." I knew almost before I'd gotten the words out Ash didn't deserve that. I stood on my tiptoes and slid my arms around him. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it."

He didn't say anything. But he did put his arms around my waist.

I looked up at him. "It's just...why are you driving Gary's truck?"

"It's _my_ truck."

Gary must have gotten a new truck for graduation, just like Paul. And now Ash was driving the pink truck, because - crap. "Oh, Ash, I forgot your sixteenth birthday!"

"I know."

Those two words told me he'd already thought everything I was thinking. Our birthdays were three weeks apart. We'd had a few birthday parties _together _when we were little. How could I have forgotten his freaking birthday? "I was preoccupied with finals," I gasped, "and summer coming up, and-"

"Gary. I know."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said sincerely. I hugged him as hard as I could, then started to pull back.

His hands didn't leave my waist. "I'm still kind of mad," he said.

Laughing, I tightened my hold on him. I felt him bend down and put his chin on my shoulder.

On the other side of the truck, talking with my brother, May raised one eyebrow at me.

That's when I had an idea.

I ran my hand down Ash's side until I found his hand. "Let's talk privately."

He looked down at his hand in mine like he couldn't quite believe this was happening. I couldn't either. "Okay," he told our hands.

I called across the hood of the truck, "Ash and I will be right back. We're going to talk privately."

May and Drew stared at us, then each other, then us again. Finally I pulled Ash away, swinging his hand like holding hands with him wasn't the weirdest thing ever. We walked down the side of the tennis courts that faced the road. The very edge of the pool of light from the tennis courts touched us, so we could be seen from the road: very important to the plan.

I backed him against the fence. I didn't shove him or anything, but I'm sure he felt trapped against the chain links because I stood so close to him, and the determined expression on my face was so frightening.

I squeezed his hand. "I think Gary and Misty's little fling is fake. Gary's trying to get revenge on you, and Misty's trying to make you jealous. She wants to heat up your romance for the summer. In two weeks, by the Crappy Festival, it'll be over with Gary and things will be back to normal." And Gary would be free again. "But you need to up the stakes to keep her interested. To make sure she comes back and never leaves you. To teach her a lesson."

Ash breathed faster. His brown eyes widened as it dawned on him what I was going to suggest. In fact, he looked close to panic. I almost backed down. I'd be pretty embarrassed if he ran screaming away and hitchhiked with someone on the road just to escape from me. But I had to salvage my chance with Gary. I'd never gotten as close to him as I had yesterday afternoon in the lake! So I pressed ahead.

"You and I should pretend to hook up. That'll show Misty you're not putting up with her bullshit. And it'll show Gary I'm girlfriend material. We'll drive them mad, I tell you, mad!" I made a joke out of it just in case Ash burst into uncontrollable laughter at the idea of even pretending to hook up with me. Then I could say I'd been kidding all along. I knew Ash valued me as a friend. But I offered him a way out in case he thought I was a dog.

He swallowed, still watching me, alarmed. "You want to hook up with me. To make Misty jealous, so I can get her back."

"Right," I said, wondering why this was so hard for him to understand. Maybe he didn't watch as much Laguna Beach as I did.

"You think that would work? It would make her jealous to see me with another girl?"

"Sure." It was looking more and more like my dog theory was correct. "Unless you think I'm the wrong girl for the job. I'm just suggesting you do this with me because I'm trying to hook Gary, too." Did he think being with me would ruin his chances with Misty or any other girl at our school forever?

"Okay," he said quickly.

"Okay?" I had thought it would be harder to convince him. I'd missed something. Which, I'll admit, was not all that unusual.

"Okay, we'll pretend to hook up." He still watched me. His eyes traveled from my eyes to one of my ears, down my neck and further down my cleavage (thank you sports bra!). He actually leaned back against the fence for better viewing of my legs beneath the micro-miniskirt. Then he met my gaze again. Like he was surveying what he had to pretend to hook up with, and it checked out, with no damage to his rep.

I should have appreciated this. I passed inspection! But his gaze made me uncomfortable enough that the pesky tingle returned. Worse, he seemed to sense he was causing me to tingle. He made that face with his jaw dropped, trying not to smile. Then he gave up and broke into the broadest grin I'd seen on his face since - well, since yesterday afternoon, when he beat Gary at push-ups.

A memory flashed into my mind of Ash, age eight, jumping off the roof because Gary dared him to. (Broken ankle.)

I wondered what I'd gotten myself into.

Suddenly very nervous, I rubbed my tingling hands together and looked toward the road. "Should we drive to the movie theater parking lot where more people will see us together? We could pretend to k-" I looked back at Ash at that moment, and something stopped me in the way he watched me.

"Iss," he said, nodding.

"And they'll tell everyone. It'll get back to Gary and Misty."

Now he was shaking his head no. "That's not going to work. We can't stage it so carefully. I'm an awful actor. Something tell me you'll never win an Oscar, either."

"Hey-"

"So we need to make it look natural. We need to act like we're into each other all the time, without checking first to see if someone is watching." His hand was trembling in mine. "Maybe this is the first time we've realized we're into each other. And maybe this is our first kiss."

He leaned down. When his face got within a few inches of mine, I giggled. Not the fake giggle of a tomboy raised by wolves, either. A real, girly, high-pitched giggle that originated somewhere in my sinuses and made me want to slap myself. There was hope for me yet.

"See?" he whispered against my lips. "This is what we're trying to avoid. We need to act like we _want_ to do this." And he kissed me.

There were still a few inches between our bodies. So there was no embrace. Only his lips, soft warm, on my lips.

Our fingers interlaced.

A tingle so strong, it turned into a vibration.

A hick driving by on the road, hollering, "Get a room, Ketchum! Wooooo!"

Ash laughed a little against my lips. I thought I detected the slightest shudder, like he felt the vibration too. Then he backed up and looked at me. "Is that what you wanted?

"Yes," I breathed. "Is that what _you_ wanted?"

His smile faded. "Yeah. Come on." He led me back up the sidewalk, toward May and my brother still talking together but never taking their eyes off us. When we got close to the truck, Ash asked me, "Will you go out with me tomorrow night?"

"I'd love to," I said, focusing only on him like I had no idea my brother was staring a hole through my head.

"I'll pick you up at seven," Ash said. "No, wait."

"That's fine," I laughed. "You can drive a hundred feet and pick me up at seven."

"I'll walk over at seven." He smiled and twisted a lock of my hair around his finger. "Seven is lucky."

Drew cleared his throat.

"That's not what I meant!" Ash roared at Drew in outrage. Ash's cheeks were bright red.

"Are we finished?" May asked quickly. "Dawn, didn't you lose four or five balls over there in the bushes?"

Drew, Ash and I all started for the bushes. But May caught my by the sports bra, and I snapped backward. She waited until the boys were out of earshot before she hissed, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Yes!" I said happily. "But you can't tell anybody. And I don't mean you need to keep this secret the way the tennis team kept a secret last year, by leaking it to the basketball team." I'd seen Leaf and Giselle work.

"I promise," May said, pulling a tennis ball from her pocket and bouncing it against the truck fender. She'd seen Leaf and Giselle work, too. On _her_ secrets. Personally, I'd never had a secret for them to work on before. I was that popular.

"Don't mention it to Green. He might blab it to Paul, depending on how funny he thought it was. You're the only person I'm telling. So if it gets out, I'll know you spilled it." I explained in brief the ingenious and diabolical plan. "Doesn't that sound ingenious? And diabolical?"

"It sounds hopelessly complicated. Wouldn't it be easier to hook up with Ash for real? He's adorable."

"No he's not!" I eyed her, unsure I should have share the diabolical plan with her after all. Granted, Ash _was_ adorable. But I was after Gary. I didn't intend to act on Ash's adorableness. And at that moment, I realized I didn't want anyone else to _act_ on it, either. He was part of my Adorable Special Reserve. Now that May was telling me there was indeed a problem with my plan, I found that I didn't want to hear it.

She bounced the ball methodically against the truck. "You think _Gary_ is adorable."

"Duh."

"And Ash looks a lot like Gary."

"True dat."

"So why don't you think Ash is adorable?"

I snatched the ball in midair and shook it at her. "Because he's Ash!"

Ash and Drew had found all the escaped balls. They stood in the bushes, oblivious to bugs, and threw tennis balls as hard as they could at each other. The balls bounced off their arms and chests, and they dove after the balls into the bushes again. Typical. I turned back to May. "You said yourself that Gary was fondue."

"No, _you_ said that."

"You said girls fall over themselves to get Gary. They don't do that for Ash."

"But wouldn't that be better? You'd have to share Gary. Ash would be yours."

I'd thought girls giggled secrets to each other because they understood each other. May didn't understand me at _all._

Ash had made a hangman's noose out of a length of vine he found somewhere and was chasing my brother down the sidewalk with it. Both of them laughed like ten-year-olds. Ash really did look adorable when he smiled.

Alright, so, maybe May was half-right. I knew Ash had been kidding about seven being lucky. I knew he was just playing the part with me, like we'd planned, so he could get Misty back. But part of me, a tiny part about the size of a candy heart, wished he dreamed about getting lucky with me.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: :O Ash and Dawn had their first kiss! <strong>

**I bet no one suspected they would "pretend" to go out even though it's in my story summary! **_"her role of girl friend to Ash" _Then again, I might have tricked you because I didn't put "girl" and "friend" together like I did for, "_she's girlfriend material." _**But still...you must read carefully ;)**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! And now I am so anxious for you guy's thoughts ;D So please review.**

**To be honest, I'm not sure when I'll be updating again (won't be long, I promise) since I haven't started the next chapter yet. Hopefully I can update next weekend, but if not, definitely the week after next :) but...so stay with me if you'd like to see where their "fake relationship to get Misty and Gary back" leads to ;)**

**- Angel ^_***


	8. No Need To Worry?

**Author's Notes: I finished this chapter earlier than I thought I would :) but it isn't much /: meaning, nothing happens in this chapter and I honestly think it's kind of..bleh? (I know I shouldn't say that about my own chapter but whatever.) However, something _is_ important in this chapter.**

**So, despite what I think of this chapter XD, I hope you all think otherwise and enjoy ;)**

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><p><span>No Need Too Worry...?<span>

Gary had the nerve to smile down at me. His black eyes were light, a kind of spooky black. He shouted above the buzz of the boat motor, "Dawn, when we're old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend."

I tried to speak, spluttered, and spit out a lock of my hair the wind had blown into my mouth. I was nothing if not glam. "You're old enough," I told him. "And if Misty is old enough, _I'm_ old enough."

He bent closer and said, "I'll pick you up at seven."

What a thrill! He'd asked me out! I was going out with Gary! Only, those were the words I had _heard._ What he'd _mouthed_ was something different. Like on one of those kung fu movies the boys loved to watched, with English words dubbed over the Chinese sound, and the characters' mouths never quite matching up.

"Bastard!" I sat straight up in my cold, wet bed. I wiped and wiped with my palms, but I could _not_ get all my hair out of my mouth. Then I realized what I'd said out loud. "Sorry, Mom," I told her sweet sixteen photo on my bedside table. My alarm clock blasted Allstar Weekend, "Hey Princess."

Oh yeah! I vowed to move things along with Gary that day at work. I would make sure he knew I was part of the hot scene. Unfortunately, the instant I stepped into the marina office, I was presented with an obstacle to this goal in the form of a furious matriarch with brown hair.

"Dawn!" she roared, spinning around in her office chair.

"Good morning, boss!" I said brightly, giving her a wave.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "It was bad enough when Ash told me yesterday that Gary stole Misty from him. He wanted me to ground Gary."

"Ground him for how long?" If Gary was grounded, he wouldn't even be able to pick Misty up and drive her back to his own house. He could only see her if one of her sisters dropped her off. Gary didn't like to be embarrassed. Instant breakup! On the other hand, if he were grounded for the whole summer, even after he broke up with Misty, he could never go with _me. _

"I can't ground him," Mrs. Ketchum squealed. "I can't ground a legal adult. And I can't ground one son for stealing the other's girlfriend. But I've got to do something. Ash's cheekbone is blue. Gary is holding his jaw at a funny angle and won't let me look at it. The physical fights are bad enough. They can't torture each other psychologically, too!"

Of course they could. They'd been doing it for years. Obviously, Gary was careful not to call Ash ADD when their mother was around. Somehow, I didn't think pointing this out would help my current situation, so I nodded like I understood her dilemma. "Do I have gas?"

She folded her arms. "And this morning Ash told me he's going out tonight. With _you_."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I sang, sweeping my hand down my body in the _all this can be yours _gesture.

"You were after _Gary,_" she spat.

"Who, me?" Yes, I actually said, _Who me?_ I was beginning to see Ash's point about never winning an Oscar. "I was after Ash."

"You were after Gary. You watched him moonily all day Friday. You took an hour and a half for lunch, waiting for him to show up.

I raised my chin haughtily. "You people are slave drivers. Can't I have a break to watch What Not To Wear?"

"Besides," she said more calmly, examining me too closely for comfort. "If you and Ash were really about to start going out, Ash wouldn't have complained to me just yesterday about Gary stealing his girlfriend. He'd be happy to have you, and he'd forget all about her."

Good point. Where was Ash to take some of this heat? I looked around futilely for him. Then I told part of the truth. "It's the principle of the thing. Ash's also mad Gary broke his remote-control Hummer that he got for Christmas six years ago."

She went limp with exasperation. "_Ash_ broke that! Ash said Gary broke it on purpose, Gary said Ash broke it, and I believed Gary."

"Exactly."

She stared me down, waiting for me to crack, while I tilted my head this way and that way and flattered my eyelashes at her. Finally, she nodded at the door and said, "You're in the warehouse. With Gary. "

A torture worse than death, ho ho. A second chance to move things along. Gary and I helped the full-time workers take boats out of storage. Mostly we found the boats that needed to be brought down, cleaned the seats, and topped off the fluids in the engines. As we finished each boat, Paul and my brother delivered it across the lake. Ash had gas. More than throwing me with Gary for spite, I think Mrs. Ketchum was trying to keep Ash and Gary away from each other.

I did my best with Gary, but it wasn't good enough. He treated me _exactly_ like he always had, except for two days before in the boat. He would do things that were so, so sweet, like get me a soda from the office when he got one for himself. But then he spoke to an old lady customer in the same loving tone he'd used with me. Also his mother.

Maybe he didn't know yet that Ash and I were going out. I couldn't imagine Mrs. Ketchum had shared this tidbit with him if she thought it would add fuel to the fire. So Gary didn't understand he was supposed to realize I was girlfriend material and feel jealous. Skilled though I was in the womanly arts of manipulation and talking smack, I couldn't quite figure out a way to pass this info along to him without coming out and telling him, which would blow my cover. So I was super-sweet right back to him and traipsed around the warehouse in my tank top and generally acted like he and I were just friends. Ha!

Late in the afternoon we went wakeboarding. Yesterday we'd skipped calisthenics for the first time ever, and we had no taste for them today either. My brother didn't announce it was time for calisthenics, and neither did Paul. Gary and Ash just glared at each other as they threw life vests at each other to pitch into the boat.

I think we all were a bit on edge by the time we launched. But Gary spotted first and Ash sat way in the bow, so we began to relax. After all, Gary and Ash weren't likely to get into it on the boat. Paul and my brother were there to pull them off each other. My brother was bigger than any of them.

As for me, I wanted so badly to sit across the aisle from Gary. He might scoot over and share my seat with me, like two days before. But no, he would never do this and mess up his "relationship" with Misty – not while it was having desired effect on Ash.

Subtlety and patience were not a couple of my strong points. Perhaps you have figured this out. However, I managed to keep my eyes on the prize, which meant bypassing the seat next to Gary and plopping down against the wind in the bow with Ash. Problem was, Gary's seat faced backward se he could spot for my brother wakeboarding. He didn't even _see_ the knee-weakening look Ash gave me as I sat down.

But Paul in the driver's seat could see us, and Gary might be so gracious as to turn around once in a while. I wondered what Ash would want to do with me. Whether he would try to touch me, and where. Maybe he was thinking the same thing I was thinking: it was a bit early for PDA in our faux couple hood. If we suddenly fell in love after almost sixteen years of being friends, it would be _obvious_ we were faking to show Gary we didn't care about him and the treacherous Misty.

For whatever reason, Ash didn't touch me. He was content to watch me, darkly. I had no idea why he was looking at me this way. Clearly we were _not_ thinking the same thing after all.

Then I had another problem. Ash had told me two days before that I'd screwed up my chances with Gary by taking his place in the wakeboarding show. Maybe I should face-plant an air raley so Gary wouldn't think I was rubbing it in. But you know what? I was still so thrilled with my great runs two days in a row, I wasn't willing to throw it for a boy. Even a boy this important. Maybe this was something I could work on as I matured.

Gary had another bad run. Ash did too – ouch! – but at least he enjoyed it. I had another run so fantastic, I decided I'd work on an S-bend the next day. Ideally this would involve _landing_ the S-bend, unlike some adrenalin junkies I knew.

Gary didn't seem to mind I did well and he didn't. He was his usual pleasant self, a bit too distant for my taste, same-old, same-old. He must have _really_ been basking in the fact that he'd gotten Ash's cow. I mean, girlfriend. That was okay. I would get Gary in the end.

I was feeling very hopeful about the whole situation when we docked at the marina. Maybe it was the sun again, or the lingering glow from my good run. But when Ash helped me out of the boat and we did the secret handshake, I didn't even care it was a complete waste of handshake because Gary had already gone into the warehouse and didn't see it happen. Doing the handshake made me feel like _somebody_ valued me enough to do a secret handshake with me.

"By the way," I said during the high-five, "What was up with the look you kept giving me in the boat?"

"What look?" Ash asked, blushing. He knew what I meant.

"This look." I showed it to him.

He squinted at me. "I'm not a doctor, but I'd say either indigestion or a stroke."

We laughed, touched elbows, and parted ways on the dock. I sauntered to my house, taking big sniffs of the hot evening air scented with cut grass and flowers, not minding too much that I had to spend a few minutes blowing a gnat out of my nose. I wished Gary had asked me out like he was supposed to. But if I had to go on a fake date to get him, there was no one I'd rather go on a on fake date with than Ash. I might even joy it, as friends.

After dinner with Dad and Drew, and a beauty routine that included teasing my mascara-coated eyelashes apart with the comb attachment to Drew's electric razor, I was ready. An hour early. I peered out my bedroom window at Ash's house and wondered what he was doing right now. Getting ready himself? Taking a shower?

Even though the picture of him in the shower all was in my head, I took a step back from the window at the force of the picture, and the realism. I must be picturing _Gary_ in the shower, because the boy in the shower wasn't wearing a pokeball around his neck.

Ash wore the red and white pendant while wakeboarding and swimming. He must wear it in the shower too. Or did he? In all the times over the years we'd worked together at the marina, when he'd bent down and the pendant had swung from the chain, I'd never noticed a dirty patch in the shape of the pokeball adornment on his neck.

Okay, I couldn't stand another hour of torturing myself this way.

I said _ta_ to my dad and waded in my heels down my yard to the dock. Then I untied the canoe and set off across the lake. Crossing the lake in a canoe, sailboat, or anything without a motor could be harrowing. The lake was about a half a mile wide at this point, and a canoe crossing the traffic pattern was likely to get T-boned by a speedboat driven by someone from Hoenn who didn't understand boating laws and was drunk. But the busiest part of the day was over, and I paddled fast.

On the other side, I tied up to the Myers' dock. Funny that the kids weren't swimming. They'd probably been swimming all day and had brained each other several times with plastic shovels and nearly drowned once, and their nanny was about damned tired of it and had made them get out of the water. I was all too familiar with this scenario.

Sure enough, as I waded up their yard, I heard the kids laughing behind the fence. Even I, the Great Dawn, Number One Seed Wakeboarder on the Ketchum's Marina Team, didn't think I could scale a wooden fence wearing high heels. Pitching one shoe over and then the other, I jumped up, grabbed the top of the fence, and hoisted myself up.

The kids were making castles in the sandbox. Really just mounds of sand, but I'm optimistic. Joy sat crossed-legged in the grass nearby, wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and hemp shorts with sandals. (Not the best person to go to for fashion advice, like I'd said before.) She and the kids stared up at me.

I dropped down on their side of the fence, walked over, and sat on the edge of the sandbox. "What's the matter?" I asked the kidlets. "You've never seen such a vision of loveliness?"

"There's a gate, you know," Joy said.

"I didn't notice."

"It's on the other side of the house, off the driveway, where people usually put gates."

"I got in, didn't I? Geesh, you always want me to do things _your_ way." This was sort of unfair. Joy had been pretty hands-off as governesses went. Like I had anyone to compare her to. "Well, this time I've definitely done something that isn't covered in the child care manual. Go ahead, ask me what happened at the party. Ask me what happened the night _after_ the party. Ask me where I'm going now, dressed to kill."

The kids gaped at me when they heard the K word. Which probably didn't reassure them about their futures as well-adjusted teens under instruction of Joy. It didn't help matters that while I told Joy about Gary and Ash, she placed her hands on her knees and began one of her deep-breathing relaxation techniques.

"Well?" I shouted. Her eyes flew open. I prompted her, "Doesn't this sound like a supreme-girl adventure? Do you watch Laguna Beach? That's a silly question, isn't it? Never mind. Maybe they have drama like this on one of your boring shows."

"Something else is going on with those boys," she said.

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. It's been years since I gave Ash or Gary Or Paul or your father the evil eye. You're the only one who comes to visit. Except…Lacey, we do not eat sand."

She scooped up the girl and took her inside. The girl didn't protest. These children had been drugged or lobotomized.

I turned to the boy. "Don't you ever protest?"

He shook his head.

"Hold strikes? Write letters of complaint? She always told us we had permission to do anything if we could write a convincing argument for it. We tried."

He intoned a cute little zombie voice. "We do not eat the sand."

Joy came back out and deposited the girl in the sandbox again. The girl examined some nearby dried leaves hungrily. "I guarantee you something else is going on there," Joy repeated. "Yours isn't the only plot."

"Right. Gary stole Misty from Ash to get revenge. Gary is always the instigator of the plot. I probably wouldn't have been half the hellion I was, if it hadn't been for Gary egging everybody on."

"I don't know," Joy said thoughtfully. "It was Ash who set off the firecrackers in my homemade cheese."

"OH MY GOD I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE HOMEMADE CHEESE!" I laughed until I choked. The children studied me with serious eyes.

"I always loved Ash," Joy said.

I sniffled. "You _did?"_ Joy wasn't too free with the professions of love.

"But Ash had room to grow. Sounds like he still does."

Feeling strangely defensive of Ash all of a sudden, I said, "_Everybody_ has room to grow.

"And I don't want you to be his field." She gave me a stern look.

"What am I, a crop of corn?"

She glanced at the kids and said through her teeth to me, "Do you understand?"

"Not really. Are you forbidding me to see Ash?" This was actually kind of romantic, though ridiculous. _I forbid you to see that Ketchum boy! _

"Lacey and Brandon," Joy said, "please turn on the garden hose and water your mother's beautiful flowers." Miraculously, the brainwashed kiddies stood and obeyed, taking half the sand with them. Joy watched them go, then turned to me.

"Every since your mom died," she whispered, "your dad has been terrified for you kids. But he's gone out of his way not to be overprotective so that _you_ don't live life afraid. And those were the instructions he gave me as your caregiver." She reached over and patted my knee. "No one's going to forbid you to do anything, Dawn. Just…_please_ watch out around those boys."

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: :o Who was able to point out the important part of this chapter? It's kind of like a hint...and I think it is really obvious ;) it just kind of jumps out at you as if its in <em>italics <em>;) Chapter dedication to whoever can find what the important thing was in this chapter! But don't worry if you don't find it...you'll just see later in the story ;)**

**So uh...how was this chapter? Please let me know in a review :)**

**Well, I'm not quite sure when I'll be updating again...could be sometime again this weekend, next week, or even the week after next. I don't know. As this point, I'm not updating every week anymore. Just whenever I finish a chapter, I'll put it up, which could be anytime...so yeah. Plus, I'm trying to really focus on finishing my next chapter to one of my other stories and I'm starting to focus a lot more on one of my newer stories ;) sooo...yeah. Not sure when I'll update again. I promise it won't be long though :) so don't worry.**

**And with that said, I'm off :p until next time everyone.**

**- Angel :) **


	9. Date Night!

**Author's Notes: Honestly, I did not think I would have this chapter finished by today. Apparently, I was wrong :) which is a good thing, because I was ready to update this again and I know you all were anxiously waiting for it ;)**

**I need to clear this up, because a few of you were confused on who _Joy_ is. Well, she is Nurse Joy except she's not a nurse in my story...she's a caregiver or babysitter. And she is Dawn's nanny. So I hope that clears that up for you guys :) She's just Nurse Joy, minus the nurse part, and Dawn's nanny :)**

**Also, last chapter I said whoever caught the hint(s) would get this chapter dedicated to them (By the way, when I said the hints were in italiacs I didn't literally mean it xD). Sooo...I would like to happily dedicate this chapter to two of my favorite people on this website :D**

**_PorcelainDollxx and ShadowkittyxX_ : They both pointed out the hints ;) hehe, awesome job you two! Now...just keep it in mind for a bit ;) Never know when will _something_will happen.**

**:D Now, you may proceed to read this chapter!...Enjoy ;)**

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><p><span>Date Night<span>

Ash sat on the end of my dock with his shoes beside him and his bare feet swinging in the bryozoa-infested waters. Just kidding - my dock had been Sanitized for My Protection by a minnow net with a very long handle.

I skimmed the canoe against the dock and stopped myself with an oar. He stood up dripping, caught the rope I threw him, and wounded it around the dock cleat. "Date or what?" he asked.

Grabbing my shoes from the bottom of the canoe, I confirmed, "Date. Ew. It's so weird to think about. Help me out, lovah."

He put out a hand to help me onto the dock. He did it in such a gentlemanly fashion, with no tickling or pinching or even a secret handshake, that I couldn't help but yank his arm to startle to him. Then _he _put his weight on _me_ to keep from falling, and we both came within a few millimeters of flipping the canoe over and landing in the lake.

We both managed to save at the last second. He helped me out of the canoe as if nothing had happened, except his face was bright red, and he wore that _don't make me laugh_ look. "Your dad said you went to see Joy."

"Yeah. I told her about the plan, and she thinks you're only going along with it because you want to get lucky with me." We shared an uncomfy titter at this ridiculous idea as he slid into his shoes, but something made me press him about this. "Did you get lucky with Misty?"

He stared down at me, disapproving. He turned the disapproving stare in the general direction of the Myers' dock across the lake.

"You did," I said with a sigh. I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath.

"N-," he started. "W-Mpmh." He put both his hands into his hair. This showed me how strong and well-formed the biceps were on this tanned, beautiful boy. "I didn't, but you don't know that, okay? I have two older brothers. As far as they're concerned, I've been doing the entire cheerleading squad since I was fourteen."

He hadn't. So why was I picturing the tanned biceps straining as he braced himself above...who?

"Your dad's thinking the same thing," Ash said.

"About your biceps?" I chuckled.

Slowly and oh so painfully I realized no one had made a joke out loud about Ash's biceps.

Slowly and less painfully he put his arms down. "I would like some gum," he said. "Would you like some gum?"

"I would love some gum," I croaked.

He reached deep into the pocket of his shorts and drew out the following items in turn, placing them in his other pocket: his wallet, a lighter, a dollar, a plastic box of fishhooks, a four-inch-long pokcetknife. Finally he produced a blue pack of extra gum. From the looks of the worn pack of gum, I'd say it was quite old. But whatever. Anything I could stuff into my mouth.

"I meant," he said, his jaw working on the gum. "your dad thinks I want to get lucky with you too. At least, that was his second reaction when I rang the doorbell and told him I was there to pick you up for our date. His first reaction was to threaten to have me arrested."

"Oh, mm." I swallowed a mouthful of artificial flavoring. Mmm, mint. "He threatens to have _me_ arrested. It's a term of edearment." I walked down the dock so Ash would follow me. Wehn I glanced back, he was still standing at the end of the dock. I threw over my shoulder, "I'll visit you in prison."

He jogged to catch up with me, and held my arm to balance me as I slipped my heels on. I know better than to wear heels on the dock. I'd seen too many girls wear them at the boys' parties. Heels got caught between the planks and arrested forward motion.

"Why didn't you tell your dad we're hooking up?" Ash asked. "I told my mom we're hooking up." He sounded almost hurt, like he thought I was embarrassed of him.

"Would you come off it? You shouldn't have told your mom. She gave me the third degree this morning, like she knows something's up between you and Gary. You tried to get her to _ground_ him? How am I supposed to go out with him if she _grounds_ him?"

Ash shrugged and said with a straight face, "If you really loved him, it wouldn't matter what you did when you went out, as long as you were together." He pressed his lips together.

"You are so full of it. Anyway, I told Dad you were giving me a lift to town to buy me an eyelash comb tonight, and we might hang out for a while. I figured he'd stage an intervention if I told him the whole truth. And if I told him you and I were hooking up for real, he'd give me the _fourth_ degree about it, you, and sex, and _oh_."

Ash nodded. "Whereas if you didn't tell him, he'd give _me_ the _fifth _degree."

"I guess I didn't think it through. It didn't seem worth the trouble, since we'll only be together for a couple of weeks." Truth was, I'd focused on how our diabolical plan would help me get Gary. With an emphasis on _Gary._ Not that Ash's relationship with my dad didn't matter, because they _did _have to live next door to each other for several more years, but come on. What were a few fake dates between friends?

We walked up the hill to Ash's driveway. I opened the passenger door of the pink truck and climbed inside - and I do mean _climbed_, because when I stood on the ground, the seat was even with my head. Ash sat in the driver's seat, weirdly. He'd driven Drew and me home from tennis the night before, but I was used to sitting in the backseat with Ash while someone older drove. I wasn't used to seeing him as a driver himself.

Gary's new truck had already left the driveway. He had to drive all the way across town to pick up Misty. No worries. We'd see them at the movies. Our biggest problem would be deciding whether to sit on the back row with the other couples who planned to make out, or further down where Misty and Gary could see us. Then maybe there wold be the additional problem of the making out. But I was getting ahead of myself. We could solve that problem when we came to it, and we hadn't even reached the movie theater yet. We were taking a detour at the dirt track, probably to show some of Ash's friends the new (to him) pink truck. And the hot prize of a girl inside! Yeah, probably not.

Instead of parking in the dirt track lot, he drove around to the mud field. It was just a huge pit of mud that the owners of the dirt track lovingly sculpted into valleys and bumps, and watered daily. Built it and they would come. Boys loved to splash across the mud pit in their pickup trucks. They didn't do this with their girlfriends, though. Girls wouldn't put up with this.

And yet here we were, perched on the lip of the pit. Richawn Turner pulled up behind us in his messed up F-150. We couldn't even back out.

I ventured to ask, "Is this our date?"

"In all its glory." With one arm, Ash made a sweeping motion acorss the mud field before us.

"Great. We're trying to make Gary and Misty jealous, besides which it's my first date in real life, and you're taking me mud riding." I'd been with the boys and Mr. Ketchum to the dirt tracks countless times to watch races. I'd always thought my first date would be with Gary. Ash wasn't too far off. But I'd never imagined my first date would be with Gary's stand-in _at_ the dirt track. "You're bringing sexy back."

He stuck out his bottom lip. "Where did you want to go?"

"Didn't Gary and Misty go to the movies?"

"Yeah, but I'll bet she made him take her to the new Disney cartoon. That's his punishment for stealing her from me. That and Laguna Beach. Endless episodes of Laguna Beach." He cracked his knuckles.

"Ash, I don't care if it's Mickey and Minnie Bust a Move. We need to be there."

"We want to make them jealous," he agreed, "but we can't follow them around. We don't want to _admit_ we're trying to make them jealous. And that's exactly what we'll be doing if we set foot in Mickey and Minnie Bust a Move."

I started to protest. But as I thought about it, I remebered every time I'd watched a DVD with the boys, Ash had left the room after thirty minutes, asking Paul to call him back in for the juicy parts. And we were always telling Ash to be quiet. We couldn't hear the movie over his iPod, or his drum set, or the roar of the blender as he made milkshakes in the kitchen. I asked, "You can't sit through a whole movie, can you?"

He frowned, which made cute little lines appear between his brows. He fished the lighter out of his pocket and flicked it, studying the flame.

Either he couldn't sit through a whole movie, or it hurt him too much to be around Misty while she was with Gary. This wouldn't help us make them jealous. But it _was_ the only the second night after the freaking shock of seeing Gary and Misty together for the first time. Ash's heart must be breaking every time we talked about Gary and Misty, yet he'd come with me this far. I could be more understanding and give him a few days for the wound to scab over.

"We don't have to go to the movie," I sighed, "but we need to go somewhere girls will see us. There's no one here but boys. It'll never get back to Gary and Misty that we were together. Boys don't gossip."

"Ha! You don't know us as well as you think."

This was a disturbing prospect.

He stuffed his lighter back in his pocket. "Here's an idea. Call me crazy, but what if we actually _enjoyed _hooking up?"

"Whoa, Nelly," I said. "You scare me, thinking out of the box."

"What if we made hooking up _productive__?"_

"That's what I'm talking about. Producing envy, with or without big fat teardrops."

"Forget about that, Dawn. It'll come without us trying so hard." He took the box of fishhooks out of his pocket and rattled it. "You're turning sixteen in less than two weeks."

That was a low blow. "You don't have to rub it in that I forgot your birthday," I protested. "You remember mine because yours is first."

"And didn't your dad stop taking you for driving lessons after you ran his car into the woodpile?"

"Only because he told me to back to the left, and I thought I did. I would have done fine if he'd pointed instead of telling me the direction. Again, you don't have to rub it-"

"I'll teach you to drive."

I blinked. He _was_ a daredevil. "Around town?"

"No right here. It's safer."

I pondered the mud field. "I might wreck the pink truck."

"Who could tell?"

"I might hit somebody else."

"If they're here, mud riding, they'd probably get off on it."

As if in agreement, Richawn Turner chose this moment to start honking his horn in time to his stereo blasting some song I was unfamiliar of.

"Oh, what the hell," I said, spitting my gum out the window. It had lost its minty flavor anyway. I scooted into the driver's seat as Ash crawled over me. Nose close to his shirt, I caught a whiff of his cologne.

And then, too soon, he was on his side of the truck and I was on mine. "Is it in first gear?" he asked. "Are your feet on the brake and the clutch? Look both ways and make sure no traffic is coming before proceeding carefully into the mud hole."

I screamed like a girl as the edge of the pit fell away under us. Then I bit my scream off short as we bounced over a little hill and then a big hill that sent us flying. Now I was giggling.

Later, waiting in line for our seventh time through, he told me, "You drive fine."

"_Really?" _I squealed.

"Yeah. Of course, I haven't told you to turn left or right."

"Right," I said, disappointed. I thought I'd been driving fine, too. But I'd done well only because he hadn't asked me to do anything hard, like tell left from right. And let's not even _think_ about starboard and port.

"When you're driving by yourself, it won't matter," he resoned. "You've lived in this town forever. You know how to get around. Your dad won't be sitting in the passenger seat, telling you to turn left or right. The only time anyone will do that is when you take your driving test."

"That's also the only time a person taking her first road test will be banned in Sinnoh for life." I edged the pink truck forward as a Dodge Ram dropped into the mud field in front of us.

"I have ADD," he said. "I'm the master of cheating on tests. Just put your hands on the wheel like this." He placed his hands on the dashboard with his first fingers up and his thumbs in, pointing toward each other. "_L_ is for left."

"Won't the chick giving me the test notice I've got my fingers in an _L_ on the steering wheel?"

"Hold your hands like that while she's examining your car," he said. "By the time you start driving, she won't think anything about it. She'll think you have arthiritis and it's none of her business."

I looked over a him. "You're a lot sneakier than I thought." He smiled. I said, "Joy hasn't forgiven you for exploding her homemade cheese."

His laughter ran out at just the moment I plunged the truck into the pit. He'd given me confidence. I veered off the very beaten path and into uncharted mud puddles. I kicked up splashes so high, Ash rolled up his window and asked me to roll up mine to save what was left of the ancient interior. We bounched from corner to corner and were bouncing our way back again when the truck dipped lower than I expected, sending a wave of muddy water across the hood and the windshield. I pressed the gas and heard a ripping sound.

I turned to him in horror. "I broke your truck!"

"We're just stuck. It happens." He unfastened his seatbelt. "Switch back."

I started to crawl over him. He'd crawled over me last time, and I figured this time he'd slide under. But he started to crawl over, too. We met in the middle, laughed, and both moved to slide under at the same time.

"Do you want to be on top or on bottom?" he asked.

"Either way," I heard myself saying. I had to remind myself that his was Ash, not Gary. This was the baby of the Ketchum family, who had always been the littlest up until two days ago. At least in my mind.

He picked me up, and before I could wiggle, removed me to the passenger side. "There." He slid into the driver's seat and pressed the gas, harder than I'd pressed it, with a longer and louder ripping noise. He opened the door and stepped out, sinking much farther than he would have on solid ground. "They'll call a tractor from the racetrack to pull us out, but it might take a while. Let's wait by the concession stand. You'll ruin your shoes, though. Here, get on my back."

He stood outside the open driver's side door. His back was waiting. I hadn't been on a boy's back since...hmm...a free-for-all fight with girls' on boys' backs at a pool party in middle school. If I'd been included, obviously there hadn't been enough girls to go around. And in middle school, the girls and boys were about equal in height and weight, so I'd worried I would crush the boy I rode on.

Not with Ash. My shoes were dainty things you shoved your toes into with nothing to hold them on. I kicked them off and held them in one hand. I slid across the seat and onto his strong, solid back, feeling like a feather. A snowflake! A dainty snowflake surrounded by an acre of mud.

He nudged the door closed with his hip. I looked down. His feet had disappeared. "What about _your_ shoes?" I asked. "Your mom will kill you."

"They're Gary's. I'll put them in his closet just like this."

_I felt a momentary pang for Gary. Then almost laughed out loud, picturing the look on his face. They were his shoes, and he would have a right to be mad. But if anything could ever make me dislike Gary, it was how much he cared about is clothes. I cared about my clothes only through great effort. _

Gary's shoes made a_ schlep _every time Ash took a step. He struggled getting up the hill to the lip of the mud hole, and I thought I would have to dismount after all.

He felt me start to slide down. "No!" he said, catching my legs more tightly. "We're fine." With one last _schlep_ we made it to the top. The prize was a tiny Airstream trailer blowing smoke out an exhaust fan. The air smelled like fried food. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

"No, but that never stopped me before."

"Me too." He stepped up to the window and looked in. "What'cha got?"

The clear/cook/janitor looked up from his Nascar talk show on Tv. "Fries, homemade doughnuts."

With me on his back, Ash couldn't turn his head around enough to look at me, but he turned it enough to let me know I should choose from his array of delicacies.

"Strangely," I said, "I have a taste for fries."

Ash reached into his pocket to pay. Putting me down on the bench beside the concsession stand would have been miles easier. I was beginning to understand that he liked having me on his back. Holding my shoes in one hand, I grabbed the fries with the other, and he carried a soda.

He walked to the bench, put the soda down, then put me down. I was still holding the fries and my shoes. I tossed my shoes on the ground (oh well, so much for dazzling rhinestones) and picked up the soda so he could sit down, then handed it to him.

It was like one of those problems on a standarized test at school. If Gary hooks up with everyone in school on Wednesday and Misty on Friday, and Ash hooks up with Misty on Thursday and Dawn on Sunday, on what day does the nuclear war commence? One of those problems Ash would just draw an X through because he _thought_ he would never encounter anything like it in the real world.

He crossed one leg over the other casually, as if he weren't coated in mud up to his knee. Then he took a sip of the soda, handed it to me, and pulled out a fry. I took a tentative sip of soda. Not that I thought he had germs - or really bad germs, anyway - but we'd never shared a soda before. We'd shared popcorn, of course, while we watched DVDs with the other boys. Once, the scoop from my ice cream cone had plopped into the lake, and he'd shared his ice cream with me. Mr. Ketchum and Joy had rushed at us when they saw me about to take a lick. I shouldn't read too much into sharing a soda now, though. It was something people did when they went out.

"Mumph!" he hummed his mouth full of delicious fries. Swallowing, he grabbed my bare foot and pulled it into his lap. "You painted your little toenails."

I opened my mouth to explain proudly that the toenails in question represented hours of meticulous work. Well, maybe forty-five while watching reruns of Wife Swap. I'd put the polish on and taken it off three times because it tended toward gloopy. Who knew beauty regimens would be so complex?

But then I looked up, my mouth just stayed open. He was staring at me with those beautiful brown eyes. A chill hit me from nowhere. It made the hair on my arms stand up. It raced down my body to my toes, which he was stroking with one thumb. And so the chill moseyed back up my body again.

I took a slow, shaky breath threw my wide open, ridiculously gaping mouth. Then I realized what the problem was. His resemblance to Gary was eerie sometimes, espescially the eyes. I managed to say, "You're giving me the look again. Don't look at me like that."

Stubbornly he gave me the look for ten more seconds, so there. I would be lying he I said I didn't enjoy the look. I _really_ enjoyed what it did with my skin. He was a superhero with Massage-O-Vision. I enjoyed it too much for comfort. He was just going to turn his Massage-O-Vision on Misty when he got her back, so the pleasant prickles _I _felt were prickles on loan. He'd be horrified to know he was giving them to me. Besides, I wasn't going to sit there and let him give me the look when I'd asked him not to give me the look.

Just as I was about to either pinch him or find the strength to look away, he let my toes go and turned away himself, gazing out over the splashing trucks. The mud sparkled in artifical light. As first glance it might have seemed about as romantic as watching cement being poured, or a building being demolished by a wrecking ball. Nothing said _romance_ like the scent of burning rubber. But to me, it started to seem very romantic. I almost wished Leaf and Giselle could see me now. Well, not really, because mud had splashed on my calves. I scratched at a spot with my fingernail, and it smeared.

He asked, "Why does it have to be Gary?"

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Hm...what exactly does Ash mean by that? O_o Anyone care to guess? ;) But nothing special this time because I don't want you to actually know yet :p you'll find out in a few chapters what he meant after you put two and two together XD<strong>

**Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter :D I love you guys' reviews! :)**

**I have everyting planned out for next chapter, which will be the continuation of their "date," so it should not take me long to write it up and get it up here :) So next week, for I will be updating :) I find it so easy to write for this chapter and I love that xD makes updating quicker :D**

**Anyways, I shall see you lovely people sometime next week ;)**

**- A n g e l ^_***


	10. Staying on the Mission

**Author's Notes: Hi guys :D I know I'm late to update. I actually had this chapter completed last Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday) but for some odd reason I did not feel like updating this yet o.O Honestly, I didn't want to update today but I got over the pesky feeling and updated obviously :D I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer, also.**

**Soo...the last chapter ended with Ash's question...What does he mean?...**

**Read on and enjoy ;)**

**Also...this chapter is the continuation of Ash and Dawn's date.**

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><p><span>Staying on the Mission<span>

I snapped my head up and tried to gauge what he'd meant by this. I couldn't tell, because he wouldn't meet my gaze. Which was probably a good thing. I could feel myself flushing as my heart pounded.

I was attracted to Ash. Not as much as I was attracted to Gary, of course. That would never happen. But Ash had been so sweet and so fun, teaching me how to drive. Tangling with me as we switched places in the truck didn't hurt either. Or carrying me on his back.

Did he mean, _Why does it have to be Gary instead of me?_ And if he did…

Good God, what was the matter with me? Ash didn't like me that way. He just hated Gary. He wanted to know why I was so stuck on _Gary_, of all people.

And I didn't like Ash that way, either. Not really. Flirting with him was fun, but that's all it was, and I was getting carried away. I needed to remember I was on a mission. I would tell him the whole truth about the mission. I owed him that much, since he'd agreed to help me by faking a relationship with me.

I munched on a fry and thought about Gary sashaying his way through the school lunchroom last spring, Leaf on one arm, and Giselle on the other. Everyone turned to watch as he passed. People called out to him from the tables. All he needed was the paparazzi behind him.

I said simply, "Gary lights up the room."

Ash still wouldn't look at me. He took another fry. "I can see why you'd want to watch him, listen to him. Not why you'd want to _get together_ with him. He lights up the room so bright that you would just be sitting there blinking, blinded." He stuffed the fry in his mouth and immediately went for more. But from the bottom this time. He either needed to do something with his hands or he wanted to be challenged, as always.

"I've always wanted to be with him," I said. "Yeah, logically I can see the drawbacks, but I don't think you or anyone could argue me out of it. I need to find out for myself, because I've wanted this for so long."

"Always," Ash muttered, tossing up a bit of fry and catching it in his mouth.

"Almost always. Actually, I can remember the very day it started." The mud field in front of us dissolved into a sun-splashed view of the lake through shady branches. The roar of monster trucks faded, replaced by the birds chirping, and my mother's voice. "It was before Mom died. We were all really little. But I remember it so clearly. Your whole family was at my house for a cookout in the summer. I was with Mom and your mom up on the deck. I'd wanted to play with you boys, but my Mom wouldn't let me.

"Your mom said I was such a lovely little girl, so ladylike and polite. That's what pricked my ears up, of course: the praise. But I kept playing like I wasn't listening. Then your mom said I didn't always have to stay home. I was welcome to come over to your house to play whenever Green came over. Now I was really paying attention, and holding my breath to see what Mom would say. All I'd dreamed about my whole little life was playing with you guys."

"Why?"

I snapped out of my daydream. I'd almost forgotten Ash was sitting there.

He put one hand on my knee, watching me, and didn't even turn to look when Richawn purposefully spun his tires, coating one side of the pink truck in mud. "Why did you want to play with us?" Ash asked. "At that age, we were basically squirting each other in the face with water guns."

"Compare this to sitting in my room by myself, dressing and undressing Barbies."

"Oh." He nodded.

"Anyway, of course I was disappointed, as always. My mom said your mom was so nice to offer, but she didn't want me playing with four boys very often. I'd grow up to be a tomboy."

"What's wrong with being a tomboy?"

"I think it's fine until a certain age. When you're young, being a tomboy may even give you a certain advantage. You can always beat girls like Leaf and Giselle, and ohmygod, Misty in Little League Softball. You can catch four fish in the Girl Scout fishing rodeo while they're still refusing to bait their hooks because worms are icky."

"Misty will actually bait her own hook," Ash defended her.

I didn't want to hear it. I talked right over him. "After a certain age, people don't know what to make of a tomboy, and you don't fit in. You end up feeling empty and lost."

Those frown lines appeared between his brows. He moved the plate of fries behind the bench, slid over until his leg touched my leg, and put his hand on my knee again.

Strange how his touch made it easier for me to talk. I went on, "Just as Mom was telling your mom no, Gary came up the stairs crying. You and the other boys had dared him to stick bread between his toes and put his foot in the water. A fish mouthed him and he freaked out."

"Er-" Ash started.

I waved him off, because this was the most important detail. "My mom took his chin in her hand, turned his face toward me, and said 'Just look at those eyes. He's going to be a heartbreaker.'" I found myself smiling at the memory. But when I turned to Ash and saw the look on his face, I stopped smiling.

"That sounds like a _bad_ thing," he grumbled.

"People mean it as a good thing," I said, suddenly not as sure of this as I'd been for the last twelve years. But I couldn't really expect him to understand. Talking about Gary around Ash was like throwing Evian on a fire. "And then Mom said, 'Dawn, just _wait_ until you're sixteen.' She was stuck on the sixteenth birthday. We made a scrapbook with pictures of all my baby events, and spaces for when I would turn six, eight, ten, and twelve, and a super-mondo sequined space for when I turned sixteen. She wanted me to have exactly what she'd had, a great sixteenth birthday, exactly what any teenage girl would want. Her parents gave her a special grown-up ring, and she wore a groovy dress that's hanging in my closet."

We'd moved away from talking about Gary. Predictably, Ash took a deeper breath and relaxed against the bench. "Are you going to wear the dress on your birthday?"

"Are you kidding? It was the seventies. White polyester, baby. Highly flammable. Burn baby burn, disco inferno. Unsafe. Uncool."

"I'll bet it's pretty. You could wear it wakeboarding on your birthday, during the Crappy Festival show." He was back to his old self.

I chuckled. "Unfortunately, you and I are the only two people in the world who would think that was funny."

"What does that have to do with Gary?"

I squirmed a little under the gaze of the intense brown eyes. I felt his disapproval even though I hadn't told him he should disapprove yet. But he was helping me with Gary, and I'd committed to telling him the whole story. "Mom died not long after that. I took it as a free ticket to Disney word. Yay, Mom wasn't around to stop me! I got to play with boys! Only I felt guilty about being the least bit happy she was gone, even when this was the one good thing about it. And I felt guilty I didn't tell Dad or Joy that Mom wouldn't have wanted me over at your house. It went against her wishes for me. I promised myself I'd clean up by the time I was sixteen. And if I could finally convince Gary to ask me out by my sixteenth birthday, I would know I'd turned out okay after all."

Ash nodded. "Because you think your mother picked Gary out for you."

"No, not exactly-"

"Like an arranged marriage," Ash interrupted. "That's very 2005."

"No, not like that. Mom knew what was best for me, and if she were still around, she would have taught me how to get it. She's not around, so I have to figure this out for myself. I'm transforming myself from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. There's much preening to be done. It's actually pretty time-consuming. I have to run my beak down every single feather to distribute the oil evenly and make myself waterproof."

"Dawn-"

"And I've almost perfected my Leaf/Giselle imitation. At least, I _thought_ I had, until the mud riding started."

"You think going out with Gary will turn you into Leaf?"

"Sort of. If I get into a relationship with Gary, everyone would treat me differently. Everyone loves Gary. If Gary chose me, they'd think they'd always overlooked something special in me. Then maybe I could become that girl. I know you hate Gary, but you understand why everyone loves him, right?"

I took Ash's stony silence as a yes.

"Girlfriend/boyfriend love is totally different from brotherly love. But the effect would be the same. Like standing in his aura. Haven't you every wondered what it would be like if Gary loved and valued you as a person?"

"I'd known Armageddon was coming. I'd brace myself for the locusts."

"I'm serious. If he just looked at you the right way, that alone could probably carry you through for a month. But if he _loved _you…"

Ash shifted on the bench. I thought he was standing up to stalk away, disgusted. Instead, he placed his arm around my shoulders. Lightly, his finger stroked valentines on my arm, which gave me shivers all over again.

"Every word out of Gary's mouth is meant to hurt me," he said. "And it's always been like that. Paul says Gary changed after I was born. When I was a baby and Mom wasn't looking, Gary threw blocks at my crib."

I almost laughed. The idea was so ridiculous. It was even more ridiculous for Ash to be angry about something like that when he was sixteen years old.

I managed not to laugh. I believed him. I knew Gary.

"But that's you," I said. "I'm sorry he treats _you_ that way, but I'm the one who's going to get together with him, and he doesn't treat _me_ that way."

"He will," Ash said. "If you ever let him get close to you, he will." The valentines he traced on my arm had turned into shapes with lots of sharp points, like in comic books when the superhero punches the villain. Ker-POW!

The tractor arrived then to pull the pink truck out of the mud. Ash took his hands off me – which I regretted more than I should have. He leaned forward to watch and make sure the driver didn't attach the chain to the loose side of the front bumper.

"Why does it have to be Misty?" I asked.

"It just does," he said without taking his eyes off the truck.

"You might feel better if you talked about it."

"I doubt it."

"What do you like so much about her?"

When he turned to me, he seemed alarmed, as he had at the tennis court the night before. With wide eyes, he searched my eyes for something – which I probably would have given him, if I'd know what he was looking for.

I asked, "What are you looking for?"

He shook his head and turned back to the mud pit. "I like her because she's so pretty," he said in his bullshit voice.

"That's no fair. I gave you a straight answer about Gary."

The tractor started forward. The chain to the pink truck pulled tighter and tighter and broke. One end of it flew over the tractor, barely missing the driver.

"She's cute," Ash said. "She has a nice ass. I don't know."

Now I understood. Talking about her hurt him too much. It was easier for him to pretend the ADD had kicked in.

After two more chains and a rope, the tractor liberated the pink truck, and Ash bought the driver a doughnut. Ash and I drove through the mud field for another hour and a half, taking turns. Mostly we managed to forget Gary and Misty.

Then we drove into town and hit all the teenage haunts: the arcade parking lot, the bowling alley parking lot, of course the movie theater parking lot. In theory this is exactly what I wanted. I was being seen out with Ash, in Ash's truck. In practice, Ash had purposefully besmirched Gary's pink truck with mud. It was like he wanted to be seen around town in it for that reason.

We rolled home at two minutes before my curfew. I'd figured he'd park the truck at his house, and I'd walk home. I was thrilled that he drove over to my driveway to drop me off. Gary wasn't home yet to see us, but maybe someone in the Ketchums' house would watch across the yard and mention it to Gary later.

And then, as I was turning to Ash to thank him for teaching me to drive and allowing me to foam at the mouth about my mom, he bailed out the driver's side door. He walked around the front of the truck. I think he would have opened my door, a gentlemen on the date, if I hadn't opened it first. It was too strange. I jumped to the ground, forgetting I was wearing my heels again. He caught me just before I pitched over onto the gravel.

"I'll-walk-you-to-the-door," he said slowly and clearly, like talking to someone who didn't speak English. Or didn't go out with boys much, or, like, ever.

He took my hand. We walked toward the lights slanting through the shadows of pine trunks. Tree frogs screamed in the night, and the air was wet. I shivered.

We climbed the steps to the porch. Dad hadn't turned on the overhead light there, thank God. Ash stood close to me in the darkness, over me, expecting something. I expected something, too. I couldn't have stood the disappointment if we'd done all we'd done that day, hugging and giving each other smoldering looks and all, without something to show for it at the end, even if we _were _just friends. But my head felt too heavy to rise my chin.

"Hey." He put his hand under my chin and gently raised it for me. "If one of us were in love with the other, if it were uneven in some way, that would be bad." He gave me a long look I couldn't really see. The shadows on the porch were too deep. His eyes only glittered a little in the starlight.

I tried to give the look right back to him. "But we're not," I said, and what was that damned high squeakiness in my voice on _not?_ I cleared my throat.

"But we're not," he agreed. "We have nothing to worry about. We can do whatever we feel like."

"Right," I said, and meant it.

The kiss was simple. He bent down and pressed his lips to mine. We stood still except for his pressure on my lips. But inside, every cell in my body turned a back flip to blind.

"Good night, Dawn," he whispered. He bounced back to the pink truck, cranked the engine, drove one hundred feet to his own driveway, waved to me, and went inside his house.

I stood on my porch and stared at his house for a long time, telling myself that I did not like Ash that way because I like Gary and Ash liked Misty and I _did_ _not_ _like Ash. _It was just that Ash was very smart, and was second only to Gary at making confusing things sound simple and death-defying stunts seem like a good idea.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Hope you lovely readers enjoyed this chapter :) I guess you found out what Ash meant with his question by Dawn's assumption. Maybe you believed it too or maybe you didn't...it's all what you think :)<strong>

**Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter :D**

**Uuh...I'm not sure when I'll update again. It might be a couple of weeks because I have SOLS (very important test that pretty much determine if you pass to the next grade) this whole month. I'm going to attempt to study...but I have _no_study habits (I know it's bad...blah -.-) so we'll just see how it goes. If there is not chapter in two weeks or next week than it went great...if so, it went bad xD**

**Also, I have made a twitter account for my FF, if you want you can follow me :) it'll be easier to keep up with me their than on fanfiction too. I tend to only get up here when I update, though I should more often because I have tons of messages to reply to x.x.**  
><strong>But anyways, follow me (if you have a twitter) for when to expect updates, some kind of news about my story xD, or just to talk :)<strong>

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**- Angel :D**

*** OH YEAH! HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD THAT DAWN MIGHT BE APPEARING IN POKEMON BLACK AND WHITE? 8DDDDD**


	11. Another Plan?

**Author's Notes: XD I _know _I said if there was a chapter this week then my studying went bad...but no :) that's not the case. I was at my grandparent's house extremely bored, so I started working on this chapter and finished in about two hours :D. Plus. I have one more SOL which is World History/Geography and I already know I'm going to pass...so...yeah ;) And this week is the last week of all SOL testing at my school. So you go figure ;)**

**Anyways, on to more imporant matters...I would like to take this time to thank everyone for your awesome reviews and the people who are favoriting and putting my story on story alert. ^_^ I'm so~ glad that you all are enjoying this story :D THANK YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH! You're the only reason why I'm still writing this story :D**

**I know you guys are ready to read, so you may read ;D**

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><p><span>Another Plan?<span>

Monday night, Dad insisted that Ash come over for dinner. Ash, my dad, my brother and I ate and joked together like we normally would out in the yard, except that it wasn't normal. It was weird. Ash sat in my mom's chair at the table. We might as well have been staring at a showy centerpiece made of silk flowers and hand grenades.

Tuesday night was much more comfy. Gary was over at Misty's and Paul was out with his girlfriend, so Ash and I had the Ketchums' living room to ourselves to watch a movie. At least, that's what we did for about thirty minutes. Then we played CDs in his room, experimented with his drum set, and made milkshakes in the kitchen. Without anyone else around to show off for, we could just be ourselves. Friends.

Wednesday night we went mud riding. I wore my sensible shoes this time - rubber flip-flops that could be hosed off. I knew this wouldn't sound very romantic when it got back to Gary or Leaf or Giselle. I also knew that, just like the other nights, I would stand on my porch with Ash and get the simplest, most shivering-inducing kiss. And then it would be over. The next morning, we'd go back to being friends.

Thursday night we scored. So to speak. We'd planned to go to the arcade and see who could kick the other's ass on the snowmobile racing game, but Ash called me just before it was time to pick me up. He sounded tinny, like his hand was cupped over his mouth and the receiver. "Code green. Code green. Misty and Gary watching movie here tonight. Over."

The wound Misty had inflicted on him must have healed enough that he could stand being around her and Gary. Or he misses her so much that he was willing to take a more active role in making her jealous. Either way, this was our big chance!

Slamming down the phone, I rushed upstairs to exchange my sneakers for my dainty little heels and my tank top for something that said elegance, sophistication, Express. This was how I was supposed to talk about clothes, right? Naming the brands as if I cared? Another coat of mascara and a run-through with the comb attachment to Drew's razor and I was ready, baby!

Gary's truck was parked in the driveway behind the pink truck. He'd already brought Misty over. I swallowed and tried to slow down my breathing as I pressed the doorbell with one shaking finger.

Almost immediately, I heard Ash bouncing inside. He jerked the heavy door open. "What are you doing? You don't have to ring the doorbell, dork."

Dumbass! He'd called me a dork loudly enough for the people three houses over to hear. Talk about romance.

I was about to whisper acidly that he wasn't doing a very good job of falling head over heels in love. Then I noticed he was wearing his black T-shirt printed in white with a life-size rib cage. Ash looked best in black. The color reflected darkling in the hollows under his cheekbones, not to mention the bruise under his eye, and made his strange brown eyes stand out that much more. The pokeball glimmered at his neck.

He raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to say what I'd opened my mouth to say.

I was speechless. So I grabbed his arm and spun him around at the same time. He was surprised. I managed to pin his arm behind his back for about two seconds before he shook loose and grabbed me.

"Now you've asked for it." He scooped me up, threw me over his shoulder, and held both my wrists in one hand so I couldn't tickle him. He kicked the door closed and hiked into the living room.

Pausing, he took a few steps toward Misty and Gary watched TV on the couch. They sat close together in the dark room. I wouldn't have been able to tell whose limbs were whose, except Gary didn't shave his legs. There was a loveseat where Ash and I could have settled. Then Ash thought better of it - too close for comfort - and hiked across the room.

"Hello, Gary. Good evening Misty," I called cordially, upside down.

Misty gave us a half-hearted greeting. Gary shouted at us, "Can you keep it down?"

Hmph! Clearly, he was in a jealous rage. Ash and I exchanged knowing looks as he slid me onto the desk in the corner. Still holding my wrist immobile, he fished in a drawer and brought out a long object.

I squinted in the dark. "Not the stapler!" I cried.

He grinned, tossed the stapler beside me, and rummaged in the drawer again.

"Please," I gasped, "not the Liquid Paper!"

"Shut up!" Gary shouted.

Ash and I widened our eyes at each other like we were offended and hurt. I shook my wrists out of his grasp and reached behind me for a red sharpie out of the pencil cup. Smoothing my hand across his chest (shiver), I made a red mark across the bottom right rib printed on his T-shirt, the rib I knew he'd broken. Or was it my other right? "What ribs have you broken?"

He looked down at his shirt. "This one," he said, pointing.

I made a red mark across that rib. "What else?"

"Mm." He stretched his shirt out at the bottom so he could see it better, and pointed to the opposite side. "These two." He watched as I made neat red marks across those ribs. His chin was close to my cheek.

"Both of you act crazy," Gary said smoothly, "like you're off your medication. Or like you're going to a shrink."

I didn't look at Ash. I didn't think I looked at Gary, either. But I had an impression later of Gary's face glowing white then blue in the light of the TV, and Misty in the shadows behind him. I thought the medication comment was meant for Ash. I knew the shrink comment was meant for me.

I capped the marker and stuck it back in the pencil cup. "I'll see you later," I whispered, sliding around Ash and hopping down from the desk. I had to get across the room and outside without being further humiliated, which meant I _must not_ fall down in my high heels. Or cry. I even closed the front door behind me without making any noise.

And then Ash burst through it and slammed it behind him, shaking the house. "Dawn!"

"Shhh," I said with my finger to my lips, backing off the porch and into the wet grass. I didn't want to shout about what Gary had said. It was bad enough when were quiet about it.

Ash collected himself as I watched, taking a deep breath through his nose, with his eyes closed. Then he opened his eyes and said, "The five-minute date does nothing to make them jealous." He formed his first finger and thumb into a circle. "Zero."

I swallowed. "I can't."

He stepped closer to me. "Gary has a way of finding that one thing that will make you feel so good about yourself, or so bad about yourself. That's why you love him. That's why I hate him. You knew this when you went fishing."

I was too discombobulated to make a joke about my lures. I just wanted to get away from their house. "I've had enough of boys for today, I think."

He frowned. "Are you sure?" He rubbed my arm softly. My hair stood on end.

Shivering in the warm night, I put my arm down by my side, where he wouldn't reach. "Too much of a good thing. It's strange, but even fries can get tiresome."

"I'll walk you home then."

"No," I said. "I'm sorry. I'm just done."

He watched me carefully for a moment, lowering his head to look into my eyes. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye."

He walked back into the house and closed the door softly.

I stared at the door knocker, tree frogs making noises all around me. I had done the wrong thing. I wanted to be in the house with Ash. And Gary.

Gary had said something like that to me only once before, just a good-natured joke as we passed each other in the hall at school. I'd started to cry. The office had called my dad (again). Dad and Drew and I had a big talk about it that night, wherein I told my dad that my business was not his to tell Gary's parent's about, and wherein Drew promised to have a discussion with Gary about keeping his mouth shut. Apparently, he had, because Gary never said a word to me about it again. And if he told the whole school, they were very discreet and didn't let on to me that they knew. Which would have been out of character for them, because they were bitches.

That first time happened not long after I went to the shrink, so Gary probably was just experimenting to see what I'd do. This time, he must have mentioned it because he was trying to hurt me. And if he'd tried to hurt me, he was in love with me and jealous of Ash. I knew this because when he _wasn't_ in love with me and jealous of Ash, he ignored me and was quite pleasant to me.

Therefore, the plan must be working! Hooray! So I should go back in there, flirt with Ash, and press the issue.

As I stood there, considering whether to ring the doorbell or just walk inside like I owned the place, or like they'd installed a dog door, I heard Ash holler, "Thanks Gary."

"No problem," Gary said more quietly, because he was too courteous to yell in Misty's ear.

I felt a flash panic. They weren't being sarcastic. Ash was genuinely thanking Gary for getting him out of spending an evening with me. This was called a _negative self-concept._ I had learned about it in health class. Having a negative self-concept made me think people were making fun of me, on top of the times when they really _were_ making fun of me, which I seemed to miss completely.

Then footsteps pounded up the stairs inside. Ash's bedroom light flickered on. He put his hands on the windowsill and pressed his forehead to the glass, looking for me, but he couldn't see out because of the glare.

Ash wouldn't double-cross me.

Would he?

Friday I had gas. This was fine with me. I spent most of the morning by myself on the dock, soaking up rays and feeling mentally diseased.

I didn't think I could stand a lunch hour in the office eating Mrs. Ketchum chicken salad sandwich, on edge, expecting Gary to sneak in or Ash to burst in or both. I told Mrs. Ketchum I was treating myself to a nice lunch out.

"Oh," she said, nodding. "Something happen between 'you and Ash?" She moved her fingers in quotation marks.

Yeah, I didn't have the energy to argue with her this time. That was Ash's problem. I walked over to my family's dock and launched the canoe.

The open water was choppy with wind and waves from passing speedboats. I didn't get T-boned. It was a little early for anyone to be drunk.

The wind blew me off course. I reached the far bank and needed to backtrack along the shore to the Kapurs' house. Here in the shallows, protected by overhanging trees, the water was clear and calm. Miniature whirlpools stirred around my oar. I dragged my hand in the warm water, and minnows nibbled at my fingers.

I docked at the Kapurs' and ran up to the house. It was such a relief to feel the grass on my bare feet! Every toe had a blister from a different pair of high-heeled sandals. I slid open the glass door and stepped into the den.

Joy and the kids looked up. They were sitting around the coffee table. Joy didn't sit on furniture if there was a floor available. A copy of _Mother Earth News_ lay open in front of her. She had stuck lengths of uncooked spaghetti into balls of Play-doh. The kidlets were busy sliding Froot Loops onto the spaghetti, sorting by color. I couldn't believe they'd fallen for that old trick. Joy could convince children anything was a game, for about five minutes. Obviously, some children were more gullible than others.

I walked into the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. No surprises there. The meat loaf was made with tofu. Joy's strong points as a nanny included a master's degree in early childhood education and a PhD in Russian literature, but nothing approaching cooking skills, unless it was some weird hippie experiment like drying fruit on the roof. Mmmm, rubbery apricots with a hint of tar.

I filled a bowl of fruit loops, poured some milk over them, and joined the powwow on the floor.

Between bites I asked, "What did you mean when you said mine wasn't the only plot?"

Without looking up from the magazine on the coffee table, Joy said, "I told you. I don't know."

"What would be the metaphorical firecracker in the metaphorical homemade cheese?"

She shrugged.

"Like, Gary dared Ash to get together with me because I'm so oafish and dog-looking?"

"You are _not_ dog-looking," Joy said sternly. "Besides, a plot like that would involve a high level of organization. They would have to think it through carefully. None of you do that. Except Drew, of course, who thinks things through so carefully that he can't take action. Like his father."

My spoon stopped in my mouth at the mention of my dad, who'd been the farthest person from my mind. I swallowed and shouted, "Then what the hell kind of plot are you talking about?"

Joy didn't even react when I cussed in front of her charges. She reasoned that making a big deal out of curse words drew attention to them and caused children to use them more. Therefore, she ignored them. I'm not sure this ploy worked, but then, she'd had an uphill battle with Drew and me. We lived next door to Mr. Ketchum, who could have written a dictionary of filth.

She asked, as calm as ever, "Have you thought Ash might really like you?"

The hairs on my arms stood up, just as if Ash were sitting behind me with his hand on my shoulder.

"No, I haven't." That would be seven kinds of awful, if Ash had agreed to pretend to get together with me because he _really _wanted to get together with me. My ploy to get Gary would be ruined. I might finally land Gary, like in my dreams. But knowing I'd broken Ash's heart would be a downer and a distraction. Like making out in the movie theater, knowing the pink truck in the parking lot was on fire. My mother wanted me to be with Gary, but didn't she want me to be happy?

Joy turned the page. "Open your eyes. And watch out for those boys."

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: And~ finished! :) Two questions...1. Do you think Ash is "Double-crossing" Dawn? 2. Do you think what Joy <em>asked <em>might be true? I would just like your thoughts about that ;D**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter ;) You know, this story is almost over /: as of now, with my ideas...I have twenty chapters planned for this story. So that leaves only 9 chapters left :o but~ don't worry...this story still isn't over yet. It hasn't hit the bump in the road yet. And I'm thinking of writing a sequel to this...but I'm not completely sure yet. Hm...we'll see when we get there and you guys can decide if you would like a sequel or not :)**

**Anyways...I'm not sure when I'll update again. Most likely next week since testing will be over and I can come right home and write after school..I do that anyway but you know what I mean XD. We'll see, though :D it won't be a long wait though, I promise that :)**

**Well, thanks for reading guys :) and please review.**

**- Angel ^_***


	12. Thunderstorm

**Author's Notes: :D I didn't have school today...so I worked on this chapter...and finished in one hour and like...twent something minutes. O_O That's the fastest I've ever written a 2,000+ word chapter xD I guess I was really focused on this today and was able to get it done with no problems ;) I hope that happens more often...it would be awesome :D **

**Hehe, anyways...enough talking. You may do what you came here to do...READ :D**

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><p><span>Thunderstorm<span>

Wakeboarding that afternoon, I watched the boys until my eyeballs hurt from the sun glinting off the water. I could have sworn there was nothing to watch out for. Gary was a little warmer to me than usual - the way he always acted after he'd insulted me, like some friendliness here could make up for a lack of friendliness elsewhere.

Ash was _very_ warm to me. While Gary drove, my brother wakeboarded, and Paul spotted, Ash pulled me into his lap in the bow. He set his chin on my shoulder and rubbed his hands up and down my thighs. The best part of this, for the purpose of making Gary's blood boil, was that Ash did it without comment, without expecting me to comment, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to act like my boyfriend.

The worst part of this, for the purpose of watching out for those boys, was that if my eyelids had been duct-taped open to my eyebrows, I _still _wouldn't have been able to tell whether Ash liked me, or pretended to like me, or liked me but pretended he was only pretending.

The five of us picthed the wakeboards and life vests from the boat back into the warehouse. The Friday night party would start soon, so Gary, Paul and my brother headed for the houses. I ought to have been right behind them. I needed plenty of time to shower and primp and change clothes twenty times like girls were supposed to do before parties.

But I took Ash's hand and held him back from the others. I whispered what had been bugging me all day. "Joy thinks you have a plot, other than the plot with me to make Gary and Misty jealous."

His eyes flew wide open, and the rest of him seemed to shrink back a bit. Then he stood straighter, and his brow went down. "Joy? I haven't spoken to her in years. Plus she's creepy."

"Only because she's always right," I said. "And last night, something you said to Gary...Do you have a plot against me? Are you double-crossing me? He dared you to go out with the dog next door, and if you did, he'd give you your cute little girlfriend back?"

He snorted, then seemed to have a hard time huffing out laughter, almost as if he were _relieved. _He snatched me to his tanned chest, hugged me hard, and breathed into my wet hair, "You're not a dog. You're beautiful."

Right. I knew what he meant. Beautiful on the inside. I _had_ saved a baby sparrow or two in my time. I was not someone he would want to be in a relationship with, but a beautiful person. Hooray.

"Don't ever let Gary convince you you're not." He glanced in the direction Gary had gone. "Let's go for a sailboat ride."

I loved sailing. But if we went now, we'd be late for the party. "Can't we do it tomorrow?"

"This will be an investment in your future. It'll be worth it."

I waited while Ash leaned into the office to tell Mr. Ketchum what we were doing, and I followed him back into the warehouse. The sailboat was very old and very small. The hull was a light fiberglass platform with a hole for the metal mast. Ash and I toted the hull, mast, and sail to the edge of the wharf, threw them in, and tossed down a couple of life vests. Ash stepped carefully into the hull, sat down, and steadied it against the concrete wall for me as I stepped on and sat down. The sitting down was very important. The boat was so small that it would tip and throw us off if we shifted our weight the slightest bit too far, like trying to stand on a basketball. Together we lifted the mast upright, slid it into the hole in the center of the hull, and unfurled the red sail.

"Do you want to drive?" he asked.

"You can drive," I said.

I scooted around the mast to the tiny bow. Ash slid to the back, taking the rope attatched to the sail in one hand and the handle of the rudder in the other. He pulled the sail taut, the wind filled it - and the boat tipped over, dumping us both into the lake.

I came up quickly. The life vests were floating away on the current, but the more important thing was to make sure the mast didn't fall out of the hole and sink. We'd have a hard time retrieving it from the bottom of the lake, even here near the wharf where it was relatively shallow.

Ash had the same idea. Without a word to each other, we met under the boat. His hair floated weirdly around him and his brown eyes were dull in the dark green water as he motioned for me to turn the hull right side up while he dove after the slowly sinking mast.

I came up into the sunshine for a breath and flipped the hull. Ash surfaced beside me, groaning with heavy weight of tugging the sail full of water. Together we managed to bundle it around the mast so less water was trapped in it. We pulled the sail and mast out of the water, slipped the mast into the hole in the hull, and peeled the sail into position. Water rained everywhere.

"This is romantic," I said. "You have a knack. What the hell kind of date is this?"

He laughed, "You'll see."

After we retrieved the life vests, I sat on the bow like in _Titanic. _But without any of that _I'm queen of the world _bullshit, holding my arms out. Come on, it was a sailboat on a lake.

Ash steered us back and forth across the water. The red sail billowed above us in the strong breeze, so we wouldn't get T-boned by drunks. Unless of course they headed straight for us like in a bullfight.

Sometimes Ash jerked the boat around so fast that I slipped off the bow and into the water. Dunk! These were not accidents, I thought - the gleam in his eyes was too gleamy. He turned the boat only when we were very close to shore, though, where it was safe. I wasn't too concerned about getting ground to bits by a passing boat motor in the open water.

We made it to the bridge and floated under. The sound of cars zooming on the highway overhead echoed in a sucking sound underneath, with a _clack-clack, clack-clack _as they crossed from one section of the bridge to another. I called over the noise, "How much further are we going?" I looked back at the Ketchums' house, tiny across the water, "The party will start soon."

"Someone there you want to see?"

I thought he sounded bitter. But when I turned around to glance at him, he was the usual Ash, quiet and intense, one finger tapping the boat with barely contained energy.

"Yes, duh. Isn't there someone at the party_ you _want to see? We can't make them jealous if we're not there."

"Actually, we can." He nodded to a pile. "Catch that and stop us."

I hugged the pile and brought the sailboat alongside it. Ash opened the compartment in the hull and pulled a can of spray paint out of the pool of water inside. He popped off the cap, sprayed a little paint into the air as a test, and stuffed the can into the waistband of his board shorts. "Wait here, woman," he said, then grinned. He climbed the pile, finding tenuous footholds between the concrete blocks.

"Uh," I said. He was already at the top of the pile. "Ash?" He reached to the metal outside of the bridge (thank God this side faced away from the setting sun, or it would have been too hot to hold) and, using only the strength of his arms (thank God for calisthenics), hoisted himself up until he stood on the ledge. All I could see of him was his heels peeking over the edge.

I wasn't worried about him falling. Paul had fallen off before, and it had only stung. I _was_ worried about the black clouds creeping up on the sun on the far side of the bridge, and the wind picking up. A cold gust caught the sail. The boom swung around suddenly and would have decapitated me if I hadn't ducked. Not really, but I would have had a blue bruise across my neck, and how sexy is _that?_ I crawled to Ash's spot in the back of the boat, untied the rope, and lowered the sail.

"Hey, Ash." The clouds blotted the sun. Far across the lake, the shoreline looked misty with a wall of rain. Lightning forked from the black clouds to the dark green lake.

"Ash lightning!" I called. My voice was drowned by the thunder.

The paint can droppedd into the lake. I fished it out and put it back in the compartment. Lightning flashed, closer.

His feet appeared, his legs, his board shorts. With the strength of a hundred push-ups a day, he lowered himself slowly until he hung by his arms from the edge of the bridge. I expected him to drop in the water, because he was like that. He would be electrocuted, just to paint our names on the bridge. Which might sound romantic, except something could sound only so romantic when it involved spray paint.

Thankfully, he swung his legs onto the pile and descended the way he'd gone. He stepped carefully onto the boat just as lightning cracked again, so loud and bright we both jumped, and thunder boomed directly overhead. I scooted toward the bow to make room for him.

He raised the sail, saying, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay!" I shouted over the noise of the rain and the defeaning echo of rain under the bridge. "Not your fault."

"It wasn't supposed to rain tonight."

"Storms pop up in summer."

Pushing the sail into the wind just long enough to give the boat momentum, and pointing the sail out of the wind again before we blew over, he steered us to the shore. Two piles spanning the width of the bridge stood between us and the bank. Twice, we both put our hands on the piles to pull the boat out into the rain and around the other side. I bent my head under the cold deluge. Big, hard raindrops beat the back of my neck.

We made it to shore and climbed part way up the slanted concrete under the bridge. Ash brought one of the ropes from the boat with him. He curled it around his ankle so the howling wind didn't blow the boat home without us. I curled it around my ankle, too, for good measure.

We both stared forward at the swaying sailboat, red sail puddled on the hull, and the pile beyond it. Rain cascaded off both sides of the massive bridge in sheets. My bikini bottoms didn't provide much padding between the rough concrete and my ass. The rain had chilled me. I moved imperceptibly (I hoped) toward Ash to bask in his heat.

The noise and echo of the rain filled my ears, but Ash's voice beside me sounded even louder. "Why'd you go to the shrink?"

I looked down. My palm was bleeding. I must have scraped it on the pile.

"Was it because of your mom?"

I wiped my palm on my other hand. Great, now I had blood on both hands. Helpful. I wiped them on the back of my bikini bottoms. Blood stains came out in cold water, and we had plenty of that.

I could feel Ash watching me.

"It wasn't right after my mom died," I said. "Actually it wasn't until sixth grade, when Joy left because Drew and I had gotten too old to need keeping during the day while Dad was at work. Frankly, I think she was glad to go. Gary mocking her constantly probably got tiresome."

"Gary gets tiresome in general." Ash didn't meant to change the subject - he just couldn't help making this comment. He tapped my knee, prodding me to go on.

"It wasn't like I did anything so crazy," I said. "Though that's probably what crazy people always say, right? I just didn't want to sit in class anymore. The teachers were fine and the kids were fine. I just couldn't picture myself sitting in a desk in a straight line of desks for another seven hours."

"Ha!" Ash said. "You have ADD."

"It must have been catching. So when Dad dropped me off at school in the morning, I started checking in at homeroom, then disappearing into the basement, or into the attic. I could stand over the ductwork at one corner of the attic and hear everything the principal said in her office. I could crawl above the auditorium, where the janitor went to change the spotlight bulbs, and listen to rehearsals of the school play. I was seeing this whole side of the school that other people didn't know existed."

Lightning flashed, thunder clapped. The rain pouring off the bridge into the lake sounded like static. That's what sitting in class back then had been like. Where there had been a channel before, now there was only static. I couldn't tune in, and even if I could, there was nothing to see.

"Eventually the school called my dad to say I'd missed so much school, I was going to flunk the sixth grade. My dad threatend a lawsuit because it was the school's fault they'd lost me. The upshot of it was that I went to a shrink for a while, and took some pills-"

"Pills," Ash said in utter disgust, like I would say _bryozoa _or _gelatin salad._ I hated gelatin salad. It was so ambiguous. What was it made of?

"These pills weren't bad," I said. "They helped. I only took them for a while. I went back to class and everything was fine. Really, I think it never would have happened if you'd been in my class, if I'd had someone to talk to. The other kids didn't even notice I was gone."

We listened to the rain for a few moments. He said, "Lately, I've been thinking about going back on my pills."

I thought he was saying this to make me feel better about spilling my secret. I _hoped_ he was just saying this. Ash on his pills was no fun. He was serious and level-headed and cautious. Like everybody else. But if that's what he wanted, I should support him.

"Gary makes me...," Ash said slowly, balling his hands into fists, "...so...mad." He flexed both hands with his fingers splayed. Like the anger was so great, he needed to shoot it out his fingertips before it caused him to burst into flames.

"I know," I said. "Me too." This wasn't exactly true. Gary didn't make me mad at him. He made me mad at myself.

A cool blast of wind made the chill bumps stand up higher on my arms. The sailboat tugged at my foot. I crossed my arms in front of me, covered as much skin as possible with my hands, and contracted into a ball.

"Hey. Come here." Ash slid his bare arm around my bare shoulders. Assuming we were both 98.6, I didn't understand how he could be so much warmer than me. His skin felt like he'd been standing in front of a fire. I slid my arm around his waist, too, and relaxed into his toasty goodness. I leaned my head against my shoulder. His fingers moved a little on my arm. I thought I heard his heartbeat speed up, but I wasn't sure.

Eventually the rain dwindled like someone turned down the volume of the static on TV. The thunder moved far away, and what was left of the sunset flung pink and orange on the scattering clouds. I hardly shivered as we edged down the embankment to the boat. Now the problem was finding any wind at all to get us home in the calm after storm. Sitting on the hull, we both ducked as he wound the boom all the way around the mast and finally caught a little breeze.

We emerged from darkness under the bridge, into the golden light, and looked back. Partly because rain had battered the wet paint, and partly due to Ash's atrocious handwriting, the bridge didn't say _ASH LOVES DAWN. _I cocked my head to one side, then blurred my eyes, neither of which helped. I read aloud, "AUH LOVES DAON"

"They'll know what I meant." He was so proud. "Let Gary top that."

And he did.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Oh~ ;) what goes on at the party? xD You won't really know until chapter 14 though :p Hopefully, if I can complete another chapter really quick again...then it shouldn't take long for that chapter to come up ;)<br>But for some reason, I'm very determined to get chapter 13 up this week. I really can't wait to write chapter 14 because...Pearlshipping goodness will be all in that chapter ;) Something I think you all have been waiting for (;**

**But...until then...Please review this chapter :D It'll make me really happy :D and I'll try to see you guys again sometime this week (: **

**Oh wait, before I go...My fanfiction friend _DayDreamerSharon_ has finally come to the light...or in other words, to the Pearlshipping side ;) She's more of a Pokeshipper, however she cracked (finally xD) and is writing a Pearlshipping fic called "_Pride and Popularity" _she just posted the first chapter today, and it was awesome :D You guys must check it out after you've read my chapter. I promise it won't disappoint you :) I recommend good stories only, people! Or ones that I think have potential xD Whatever, you know what I mean. Anyways, check out her new story and show the new Pearlshipper some love ;)**

**- Angel~ :D**


	13. Plan Make Misty and Gary Jealous Part 1

**Author's Notes: Told you guys I'd update this again this week ;) I was just so determined to. For some reason, I really~ like this chapter! I mean really~ like it xD And I hope you all do as well ;)**

**I have nothing else to say, so you may read now :)**

* * *

><p><span>Plan "Make Misty and Gary Jealous" Part 1<span>

The party had started. It was hard to see in the twilight, and with the mist rising off the water around us after the rain. But the gray twilight and gray mist made colors pop. Bright T-shirts and Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Tops dotted the Ketchums' lawn and concentrated at the end of the dock. The faint bass beat of the music across the water was punctuated by the occasional _foop _of a bottle rocket.

Just as Ash had been waiting for me on my dock last Sunday when I canoed to see Joy, Mr. Ketchum was waiting for us on the marina dock. It was awkward generally for someone to wait for you on the dock like this, because you realized they were waiting for you and watching you when you were still ten minutes from reaching them. With Ash, I'd felt compelled to wave and make faces at him the whole return trip. With Mr. Ketchum, it was worse. He stood on the dock with his feet planted and his arms folded.

"I'm in trouble," Ash said.

"I know." I was sitting across from Ash on the hull. I didn't sit on the bow, and I didn't want to. It seemed inappropiate and frivolous now that Ash was about to get grounded.

We sailed past Mr. Ketchum on the dock. He followed us up the stairs and around the wharf. He helped us pull the mast and sail and then the hull out of the water and carry them, dripping, into the warehouse, all in complete silence. Mr. Ketchum's jaw was set. In the twilight, Ash's expression had already settled into darkness.

Finally Mr. Ketchum closed the door of the warehouse, locked it, and turned to face Ash with his hands on his hips.

"It wasn't supposed to rain tonight," Ash said quickly.

Mr. Ketchum nodded. "The storm popped up.

Ash backed off a millimeter. "Well. Since you were paying attention, thanks for coming to our rescue."

"I knew you were okay. I watched you." Mr. Ketchum took a pair of folding binoculars out of his pocket.

"That's creepy," Ash said.

"You know what's creepy?" Mr. Ketchum asked. "Two kids who are supposedly dating spray-paint their names on the bridge like they're in love. They get caught under a bridge during an electrical storm. And they don't fool around. They just sit there."

I'd planned to stay quiet and let Ash handle his dad. I didn't want to get him in _more_ trouble. But this was too much. "Ash's right," I piped up. "That's creep-"

"Can you believe this?" Ash interruped me. He didn't care I was trying to back him up. He wasn't even listening. He turned to me and said, "You're a witness to this. It's probably the only time this has happened in the history of Sinnoh. I'm in trouble for _not_ doing you."

Mr. Ketchum took his hands off his hips and pointed at Ash's chest. "I won't have you talking like that in front of Dawn. Or in front of _me, _for that matter." Which was ludicrous, because the boys had learned all their best figures of speech from Mr. Ketchum. So had I.

"Why not?" Ash's voice rose. "That's what you're talking about, right? And now you don't want to talk about it? Maybe you're sorry you brought it up. Maybe you see now that it's none of your business."

"It's my business when it's part of this stupid game between you and Gary."

"Which one?" I asked.

As if I hadn't spoken, Mr. Ketchum said to Ash, "Your mother is right. You and Dawn aren't really dating. You're trying to make Misty jealous and get her away from Gary."

Gary made Ash angry. I could only imagine what it was doing to Ash to find out his dad _bought_ Gary's act. Ash was going to explode at his dad. He would be grounded. We wouldn't get to make Gary and Misty jealous tonight. I put my arm around him and told Mr. Ketchum, "Maybe he's more of a gentlemen than you think."

Ash gave me a look of utter disbelief. Despite how serious this situation was, I almost laughed.

He didn't explode, but his chest did expand, until I lost my hold around him. He turned back to Mr. Ketchum, held out his fingers, and touched the first one. "Gary." He touched his second finger. "Stole." He tapped his third finger vigoriously. _"My."_ He touched his pinky. "Girlfriend."

Mr. Ketchum hmphed and half-turned away, finished with us. "It's obvious Gary has something good going on, as usual, and you're trying to ruin it. Gary bought Misty a wakeboard. He gave it to her at dinner, in front of your mother, Paul, and me. You don't mess with something special like that." He stalked down the pier and toward the party.

Ash and I looked at each other. Gary had been saving the money he earned at the marina to buy a Byerly for himself. He'd bragged about it every day in the boat, like all he needed was this new trick wakeboard and he'd be numero uno again. We were talking hundreds of dollars.

He'd spend that money on Misty instead?

Ash jogged down the pier and stepped in front of Mr. Ketchum, blocking his way. "What about bindings?"

"Bindings too," Mr. Ketchum said. "They're on order."

It didn't make sense for Mr. Ketchum to be proud of Gary buying his new girlfriend a wakeboard instead of buying one for himself. It was a frivolous purchase made way too soon in the relationship. Right? What Ash and I knew, and what Mr. Ketchum knew too but clearly but wasn't admitting to himself, was that this was the first time Gary had ever done something selfless.

Or so it seemed. But he'd given it to her in front of his mom and dad, like he'd wanted to impress them more than her. The _ew _factor was off the charts. Parents were bad enough. You didn't go out of your way to_ involve_ them.

Ash was thinking the same thing. "Her birthday isn't until March. Why'd he make this big presentation at the dinner table?"

"Because he values her," Mr. Ketchum said haughtily, "and he wanted to show us how much her values her."

"Couldn't he value her out in the Volvo?" Ash hollered. "Jesus!"

Mr. Ketchum pushed past Ash and resumed his walk up the pier. Partygoers in his yard stepped out of his way. I watched him carve a swath through the crowd until he disappeared inside the house. I couldn't hear over the music, but I could tell from the way people near the house jerked their heads in that direction that Mr. Ketchum slammed the door.

Ash pinched his own arm thoughtfully. He reached over and pinched my arm.

"Ow!" I squeaked.

He took me by the shoulders and shook me gently. "He gave her a wakeboard."

"I know."

"In front of my parents. Because he values her." He imitated his dad's tone, heavy with gravity.

_"You_ could have valued her," I pointed out. "You could have given her something that meant a lot to you." I nodded toward his neck.

His eyes flew wide open. He gripped the white and red pokeball pendant protectively. _"You _gave this to _me."_

We pinned each other with a long look, and I wished for the millionth time in the past week that I could read his mind. He was upset all over again about losing Misty. He was mad at Gary about Misty. He was outraged that his parents believed Gary over him about Misty. But the pendant was more important to him than Misty? Because I'd given it to him?

The boys with bottle rockets had noticed us and shouted to us. They were shooting bottle rockets near us in the water. Sooner or later they would set a boat on fire. Yet I couldn't tear my gaze away from Ash's brown eyes. He must have seen something in my eyes, too.

"I'd better go change," I said slowly. "For the party."

"Right," Ash said, still holding my gaze.

"So." I laughed nervously. Dork. "I'll meet you back here in a while. Beauty takes paitence. Ha ha ha ha."

He shook his head. "We should go to the party like this."

"Like _this?_ My hair is full of lake."

"You look great in a bikini. As you know."

I was glad the dusk hid my blushing face. Or maybe it made my blushing face stand out like it made other colors pop, because I was that fortunate. "What do you mean, _as I know? _I don't _know."_

"If you didn't know, you wouldn't be wearing a bikini to get Gary's attention."

"Yeah. Fat lot of good it's done me."

"You wouldn't be flaunting it."

_"Flaunting_ it! Are you sure? I have no idea what that would look like."

"Come flaunt it up at the house."

I wasn't sure why this irked me. He'd told me I looked good. He'd told me I would look good to Gary. This is what we wanted. Anyway, I couldn't stand out here and flaunt it for _anyone_ in my bikini. I knew the night was hot and steamy, but the rain had done me in. I was freezing.

"Cold again?" he asked me, stepping closer.

I shivered some more. My stupid body had a mind of its own. "Toasty."

"Hold on." He took the extra key to the warehouse from the ledge above the door and stepped inside. He came back out with his zip-up sweatshirt printed with the name of our football team on the front and his number on the back. He held it up like an old man holding up an old lady's coat for her. I slipped my arms into the sleeves. Then he turned me around toward him. He pulled the hood up over my hair. Put the hood back down. Kissed me on the tip of my nose.

_Foop!_ A bottle rocket exploded in the water just below us, illuminating a blob of bryozoa clinging to the wharf.

Ash took my hand, whispering, "We've got them right where we want them. Trust me."

He led me through the crowd in the yard, up the deck stairs, into his shadowy living room pulsing with music.

Gary was surrounded by a group of people listening with open mouths to his puffed-up story of how he gave Misty a wakeboard. Even Leaf and Giselle exclaimed like they were happy for Misty instead of grumbling internally that Misty was another in a long line and Gary was just showing off. Two feet away, Misty was surrounded by hoydens screeching about how lucky she was to have a boyfriend like Gary.

From inside the dark room, the lights on the deck must have made Ash and me glow like a Tv show. As we stepped through the door, everyone turned to stare at us.

I backed the slightest bit toward Ash. He squeezed me hand.

Then the floodgates opened. The girls who'd surrounded Misty flocked to me to squeal about Ash spray-painting our names on the bridge. The boys with bottle rockets on the dock had seen it before the sun set and had spread the news around the party. The people who'd surrounded Gary moved to Ash and ribbed him about misspelling our names.

Ash played this perfectly. He laughed it all off like he didn't even care he was getting more attention than his stewing brother. He rubbed my shoulder and asked, "Aren't you hungry? We haven't eaten." He peered over my shoulder at the spread Mr. Ketchum had laid out on the bar. "Party food isn't going to cover it."

"Starved." I followed him around the bar that divided the living room from the kitchen. There were partial walls on either side, so the kitchen was a little more quiet. At least we could raise our voices over the beat of the music without making ourselves hoarse.

He opened the refrigerator door. "What'd they have for dinner? Chicken casserole?" He wrinkled his nose. "I don't want that casserole of love, do you?"

"Definitely not."

"Hey, chica," May called across the bar.

"Hey, chica," I responded, and looked over Ash's shoulder into the refrigerator. Then I realized what I was supposed to be doing. I walked around the bar, screamed, "Maaaaaay!" and hugged her while jumping up and down. This was a lot easier in bare feet than it had been in heels, let me tell you.

"Hi there," she said, wrestling me off her. "You're insane. I'm so late. My mom made me play in a stupid tennis tournament in Hearthome City today. Where is everybody?" She peered into the kitchen.

"Don't I count?" Ash asked from the inside the refrigerator.

"That's Ash, right?" May whispered.

"Right," I said. "Gary is holding court by the palm tree in the living room. The art geeks are outside in the grass."

"The football team is on the dock, shooting bottle rockets into the lake," Ash offered. I knew where his heart was.

"The trumpet line from the marching band is on the deck," I said. "Who were you looking for?"

"You!" May said. She handed me a small present wrapped in Valentine's paper.

"Hey, thanks!" I said, ripping it open. "What's it for?" My birthday was still a week and a day away, and I didn't think anyone from school knew when it was. "How sweet!" I held up the eyelash comb, twirled it between my fingers, and slipped it into the pocket of Ash's sweatshirt. I hoped I remembered to take it out again at the end of the night. If I didn't, Ash would have some explaining to do next football season when it fell out of his pocket at practice.

"It's a hostess gift," May said. "You know, when you come to a party, you bring a present for the hostess."

"But I'm not the hostess. This isn't my house." I wondered whether she'd tripped over some tennis balls, hit her head, and forgotten she'd gone with me to my house last week, scaring the bejeezus out of the father figure.

"You're the hostess because you're the girlfriend of one of the hosts," May said.

Without meaning to, I glanced up at Ash. He'd closed the refrigerator door and leaned against it, watching me.

"Or _pretending_ to be," May added.

Ash's brown eyes widened at me. Something told me - and I am sure this was not feminine instincts, because we have established I did not have any of those - but _something_ told me my explanation of how May knew about the plot might go over better if I heated Ash up. I slid my arms around his waist and pressed close to him, backing him against the refrigerator. His eyes grew even wider.

I gave him a coy half-smile. "You know how girls are. Girls can't make a move without telling other girls about it."

"Yeah, _girls_ are like that," Ash told me, "but _you're _not."

May cleared her throat.

Ash cleared his throat.

I cleared my throat, removed my hands from Ash's waist, and brushed imaginary dust off his bare shoulders, setting straight any oafish damage I might have done. From now on, whenever I got the idea that maybe he liked me a little, I would remember that he did _not _like me a little. I didn't need to read his mind.

"Hey~!" May squealed. She must have seen Leaf or Giselle or a super-cute boy - but no, it was only my brother. They disappeared into the living room with their heads close together, shouting over the music. If she thought I needed some alone time with Ash to talk out our problems, she was wrong-o about me. Again. I started to follow her.

"Dinner's ready," Ash said behind me.

I looked toward the table in the kitchen. He'd set two of the places with knives, forks, spoons, and napkins. He'd placed a sandwich on each plate and sprinkled parsley flakes in a circle around it. Bam! He'd stacked the potato chips artfully in dessert bowls. He'd even lit one of his leftover birthday candles between our places. It all would have been really cute if he meant it. It was still pretty cute as a farce to make Misty jealous, I supposed, but I wasn't in the mood.

"Let me help you," he said pulling out a chair for me, as if I were a girl or something. Vivid imagination, this boy. I sat, and he scooted me up to the table.

He took a bottle of soda from the fridge and held it in front of me, like he was a wine steward. I nodded that the year was okay. He unscrewed the cap and handed it to me. I sniffed it like a wine cork, nodded my approval again, and handed it back to him. He poured soda into wine glasses for both of us, then sat down with me.

He took a gargantuan bite out of his sandwich, chewed, swallowed, and looked at me. "What's wrong?"

_Oh nothing._ That's what a girl would say, and she'd sulk for the rest of the night. But I wasn't capable of keeping my mouth shut. "I'm confused."

"It's not really wine," he said. "It's Diet Coke. And if anyone _ever_ serves you brown wine with a foamy head, send it back."

"Thank you, Dr. Science." I took a dainty bite out of my sandwhich. Ash was a real gourmet. Peanut butter and grape jam. "I'm confused because I thought you said I was flaunting, and now I'm not even a girl? I thought you said I was a good flaunter."

"You _are _a good flaunter." He swirled the Diet Coke in his glass and sniffed the bouquet.

"Then why am I not a girl?"

"You- Shit, I _knew_ that's what you were mad about. I didn't mean it that way." He leaned his head to one side and popped his neck. "You know as well as I do that you don't act like other girls."

"I'm working on it, though." I was working so hard! I felt like crying into my potato chips, which was a step in the right direction.

"But it's _good_ you don't act like other girls. Of course, I don't have a say in it, because you're not after me. You're after Gary."

"You wouldn't have any _say_ in it _anyway_, you patriarchal freak." I chomped a chip and said with my mouth full, "Thanks for cooking dinnger. I love it when the little missus makes a house a home."

He glared at me. "Eat up. We have work to do."

"What kind of work? Devious kissing work? May I point out that we both have peanut butter breath?"

"Eat up," he said again. Gary's jovial voice escalated over the music in the living room, which made me want to speed up eating to get out of there, but also made the sandwich sit on my stomach like a rock.

We went upstairs. Ash shared a bathroom with Gary and Paul, and the bathroom displayed it. He brushed his teeth, then sipped straight from a bottle of mouthwash. As he swished it around in his mouth, he nudged my bare tummy with his toothbrush and prompted, "Hm."

"You want me to _use your toothbrush?"_

He spit in the sink. "You might as well. You're about to do a lot worse."

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Ooh~ Dawn's about to "do a lot worse." ;) haha! All in the next chapter which will be up sometime next week. I can't wait to start writing chapter 15 ;) It's going to be interesting...<strong>

**Haha ;) Anyways, it's 12:25 a.m. right now, and I have to get up early in the morning...and I'm tired! So I'm going to sleep now xD**

**Please review ^.^ Very eager for some feedback on this chapter - I like it so much, like I said xD.**

**Lol, bye you guys :)**

**- Angel :)**


	14. Plan Make Misty and Gary Jealous Part 2

**Author's Notes: This really~ was not going to be up today xD. However, I wanted to get this chapter done ;) and, plus, I needed a break from writing Crazy World of High School 2...honestly, it's making me sad /: I needed to write some sweet pearlshipping _loooveee _or else I would have went crazy xD.**

**So yeah! ;D I think this chapter is quite...enjoyable ;). However~ just a little warning: I think this chapter gets a little..._"hot"..._nothing extreme, of course. I just feel like it does xD Just had to put that out there...**

**Now...you may read ;)**

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><p><span>Plan "Make Misty and Gary Jealous" Part 2<span>  
><span>Full Effect<span>

At this point, I realized what I'd thought was stress and penut butter indigestion was actually butterflies, which began dogfighting in my stomach at the idea that Ash and I were about to kiss some more. As I brushed my teeth with his toothbrush, I watched him watching me in the mirror. His muscled arms were folded on his strong, tanned chest. The bruise Gary had given him under his eye had almost faded, but the pokeball on his neck glinted dangerously.

If his parents hadn't been in the next room with the ten o'clock news turned way up over the music downstairs, I might have made a move on him right there in the bathroom. Yes, I know, odds were I would have tripped and knocked him down and made him hit his head on the toilet. I was so turned on, I was almost willing to take this chance.

Instead, he took my hand again and led me down through the party, indoors and outdoors, to the end of the dock. The football team had run out of bottlerockets. The party had reached the stage where the boys played quarters. The drinking game was run very professionally by experienced people. If Mr. Ketchum had found out, he would have shut down the party - because kids were drinking underage at his house, or because he would have known one of his sons had stolen beer from the marina. In any case, as precaution, a wall of people stood across the dock, talking and flirting, shielding the boys playing quarters from the prying eyes of the Ketchums in their bedroom.

The wall of people included Gary and Misty, facing each other and holding hands as if they were about to dance a polka. Misty hadn't taken the precaution of kicking her shoes off before she stepped onto the dock. She was likely to catch her heel between the boards and fall flat. (Shrug.) Misty obviously valued beauty before balance.

As Ash and I approached the wall of people, Ash aimed straight for Gary. He brushed against Gary harder than necessary as we edged through. I felt Gary and Misty watching us, but I didn't look back as we stepped over the boys sprawled in a circle around a cup of beer.

We sat on the edge of the dock. The wood was still damp and cold from the rain. We slipped our feet into the lake, which felt like a warm bath compared with the cool air.

"Do you want a beer?" Ash asked.

"I don't think I could handle it. I feel so high already." The warm lake, the cool air, and Ash had my body going in a thousand different directions.

Maybe he knew. He grinned at me and whispered, "I'm going to kiss you now. It'll be a big one, so don't hit me." He leaned in.

"Wait a minute," I said, putting my hand on his chest to stop him. I wasn't quite ready to kiss him with boys playing quarters right behind us, and with Gary and Misty staring at us. We'd kissed before where people could see us if they wanted to look, but we'd never been this blatant about it. Besides, I had another concern. "I want to be prepared. Are you going to kiss me, or _really_ kiss me?"

He cocked his head at me, perplexed, with those little frown lines between his eyebrows. "What would be the point of kissing you if I didn't do it right?"

"Ohhhhhh!" said the boys behind us. There was nowhere in my life where I could get away from boys saying, "Ohhhhhh!" I glanced behind us to make sure the boys were talking about beer, not us. Indeed, when the boys' quarters hit the cup and they chose someone to drink, all of them seemed to be ganging up on Richawn Turner. I hadn't seen his monster truck in the Ketchums' driveway, so at least he wouldn't be driving home.

Gary had moved Misty in front of him and held her with his harms crossed over her boobs. So he could watch us over her head without her knowing. Of course, she was staring at Ash, too. I rolled my eyes at both of them, as if I was _so tired_ of them watching us. I almost burst into laughter at the thought, but managed to turn back to Ash in time.

I told him through my teeth,"We've been kissing all week without, you know. _Really_ kissing."

"That was before Gary gave up a wakeboard for Misty. Step up your game."

I was running out of excuses. "Look," I whispered, "when we do this stuff, we're trying to make them jealous, but it's also my first time for real. You know?"

His brown eyes focused on me. We were almost nose to nose, and our shoulders moved quickly in time with our breathing, in time with each other. "I know."

"And when I fantasize about kissing" - kissing Gary, I meant, but I wasn't going to say this - "our mouths are closed."

"This isn't your fantasy."

I wasn't so sure about that. True, I'd never fantasized about this particular scenario, but maybe that was becaused I'd never imagined it. I had to remember that this was _Ash Ash Ash, _and if I could replace him with Gary from my fantasies, the warm prickles I was feeling would make a perfect dream. Except I would probably wake up.

Ash moved in again. One more time my brain knew this would make Gary jealous, but my body sounded the alarm. I put my hand on Ash's chest and whispered, "Give me a break. I had a bad experience with this."

He looked hurt, which didn't make sense if we were only friends. He was putting on a good act. "With who?"

"The only person I've ever kissed, besides you, is Paul."

"You kissed _Pa-"_

I hadn't expected his reaction to be that LOUD. I reached out and grabbed the back of his hair, which turned his head away from the crowd and also shut him up right quick.

I put my forehead to his forehead and whispered like a lover, "I was eleven. We were in the warehouse and he grabbed me. Very sloppy. Don't tell Drew."

Ash blinked. I felt his eyelashes on my eyelids.

"Very, very sloppy," I said. "We still can't look each other in the eye."

I let go of his hair so he could look _me_ in the eye. "Let me shrug that off." He shook violently as if he'd caught a sudden chill. "Okay. I'm going to_ really_ kiss you, but it'll be subtle." He moved toward me one more time. "And don't tell me to back off. It's starting to look like we're not really in love."

I closed my eyes automatically as he kissed me, and the word _love_ blinked red and then black on the insides of my eyelids. His lips were warm. Was that all? I opened my eyes.

His eyes were still closed. He kissed me like before, only I felt his tongue between my lips, opening them. His tongue was inside my mouth (ASH KETCHUM'S TONGUE WAS INSIDE MY MOUTH) not very far, and then out again.

I thought _that_ was it, and opened my eyes. And closed them as he kissed me once more. Now I was getting it. You didn't just sit there with your lips locked with the boy's lips and the boy's tongue turning flips at the back of your throat (cough _Paul _cough). There was a constant movement and change. It was an activity, and probably one the girl could participate in, too. As Ash pulled away, I said, "Let me try."

He kissed me and whispered against my lips, "Be my guest." His low voice made me shiver.

I kissed him. Strange that the lips were so soft in such an edgy boy. I kissed him again and very gently pressed my tongue into his mouth.

He gasped. I mean, I wasn't sure, because it was in the middle of the kiss. But he seemed startled. He inhaled sharply through his nose. Then _he_ was kissing _me,_ deeper this time.

I pulled away, laughing. "It was supposed to be my turn."

He half-smiled. His lips stayed close to my lips.

I didn't suggest this, and he didn't agree to this, but somehow we telepathically agreed to give up on the witty conversation and make out. His tongue played with my lips. My tongue swept across his teeth. I drowned in it, and completely lost the people playing quarters behind us on the dock until someone said, "Is anybody filming Ash and Dawn? You might be able to sell it." Gary laughed and said something I couldn't catch that made the people around him burst into laughter too.

Ash pulled back. He was embarrassed and saw our plan wasn't working. He would escape to his room, humiliated. He would leave me naked, or nearly so, in my bikini and his sweatshirt in the midst of these fully clothed people.

Wrong. he kissed me again and whispered, "There's something else you can do if you get bored with his."

Get _bored_ with this?

"You kind of do the same thing, but move around. Here." He kissed my jaw. His tongue touched my skin just as he pulled his lips away. "Or up here." Good lord, his teeth were on my earlobe. His breath was loud and hot.

It felt so good, and at the same time, I could hardly stand it. I needed something to hang onto. My fingers patted the edge of the dock, finding a firm hold - but this seemed potentially splintery. My other hand felt for Ash's hand.

Strangely, he must have needed something to hang onto, too. He took my hand and squeezed.

The guys playing quarters may have made another comment about is, but it was hard to hear with a boy's tongue in my ear. Also it was hard to care.

I pulled away, shoulders shaking. Ash seemed to have a hard time focusing his eyes on me, like he was in a dream. I moved in and gave him the jaw treatment. Then the ear treatment.

"Ah," he said. He chuckled and then cleared his throat before the boys heard him. "Dawn."

"Mm?" I hummed in his ear.

He shuddered. And then - oh, no! He stood up. I'd done something wrong. The tongue was indeed el grosso as I'd originally thought.

"I'll be right back," he told me. He picked his way across the quarters game and pushed through the wall of people watching. He had sense enough not to push through Gary and Misty again, or they'd know the ear was for them. At least, they'd _think_ the ear was for them. I was beginning to wonder who the ear was for. It _felt_ like it was for me.

He came back dragging a beanbag float and nearly knocked the legs out from under a few people. He dragged it right over the quarters game, scattering the boys, and would have spilled the beer if someone hadn't been faster. Then he dropped the float into the lake and kicked off the part of it that sagged over the dock. He gestured toward it and grinnded at me. "Your limo awaits."

I had my doubts about this. The lake was black, and the sky was black with far-away stars. But anyone who drove their boat to the party this late would know to dock at the marina where there was more room. We were safe. I shrugged off Ash's sweatshirt and - _without looking to see if Gary was watching me,_ very important - slipped into the hot water. I hadn't realized my butt was frozen solid from the cold dock. The lake was such a relief. Ahhhhh.

Until Ash did a cannonball, socking me in the eyes with water and splashing everyone in the dock, including Gary and Misty.

"Asssssshhhhh!" they all cried. He chuckled softly to himself as we held onto the raft and kicked it out into the lake, beyond the glow of light from the house.

He stopped kicking and crawled higher on the raft, straddling it. "Come up here with me."

The beanbag raft was filled with floaty bits rather than air and always seemed in danger of sinking. This could be annoying when you wanted to stay on top of the water, getting a tan. On a night like tonight, it was perfect. It would keep us from drowning while giving us more hot water than cool air.

"Now. Where were we?" He put both his strong arms around me, pulled me close, and kissed me hard.

I hadn't thought this was possible, but it was even better than before, because no one was watching. Which was actually my new problem with it. I put my hand on his chest to stop him.

He groaned in frustration. I made a mental note to make him groan in frustration more often. It seemed like something a treacherous girl would do. Also he was really cute when he groaned.

"I just want to know," I breathed, "why we're doing this where no one can see us."

"We think no one can. We thought no one was watching us at the bridge. We need to act the part all the time, and never step out of character." He put his hand on my arm. "If that's okay."

I nodded. I was still nodding as he pushed me gently backward until I was lying down on the raft, and he was lying on top of me. His whole weight was on me, but he didn't squash me because I was hovering on the raft, just under the surface of the warm water. I felt him along me. Almost every inch of his skin touched almost every inch of mine.

I watched the red-and-white Pokeball glinting in the starlight, and tried to impress it on my retinas so I'd still see it when I closed my eyes to kiss him again. This was Ash, not Gary. I was after Gary, not Ash. Ash was after Misty, not me. And if kissing Ash was better than anything I'd ever dreamed of doing with Gary...well, I could see how that was going to mess up my plans.

I kissed him anyway. The Pokeball lay on my throat.

"And when you kiss me," I said against his lips, "you're thinking about Misty. Right?"

Almost before I got the last word out, he was kissing me again, harder than before, so intense I got lost in it and thought I might drown in the blackness even though my head was still above water.

I pinched his ass.

He yelped, and the yelp echoed across the lake and back. Silhouettes moved far away on the dock, peering in our direction without seeing.

"Did you hear me?" I asked.

He propped himself far enough above me to be able to see me. With one finger he smoothed a strand of wet hair away from my face. He traced the line of my cheek down to my chin. "Do you want me to stop? Tell me and I'll stop."

"I don't want to stop," I said. The absolute truth, for the first time this week. "But how far are we going with this?" Ash was used to jumping off the roof. I wasn't. These were dangerous waters.

He moved to my ear again, and my body braced for the shockwaves. Just before his lips touched my skin, he whispered. "I guess we'll know when we get there."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: ;D Ash and Dawn had a full-on make out session! In front of their <em>prey,<em> Gary and Misty, at that. Do you think it worked? ;) hahah! You shall find out next chapter *evil smile* which will be up next week! Maybe Monday...or Tuesday. I'm determined to update twice next week, _maybe three times, _before I go into surgery. Therefore, I want to update on one of those days. But first, I must finish chapter 16 of cwohs2. Should be finished Monday, hopefully. **

**Anyways, this A/N is short because I'm going back to work on cwohs2 now. Anyone want to help me write? x.x it's taking ages by myself. Funny how I can do these chapters so...easily *o* maybe because they're short?**

**Whatever~ anyways...please review, my lovely readers :D. Express what your thoughts of this chapter ;) You won't regret it. Hehehe...**

**- Angel ;))**


	15. It All Came Crashing Down: Literally!

**Author's Notes: I updated quickly! I started and finished this chapter yesterday, Friday, (yes, when it comes to this story, I work fast :D) actually. However, I wasn't going to put it up until Monday...buuuut I'm updating for Shadowkittyxx, specially ^_^ and she kind of did a guilt thing on me yesterday -.- But we won't go into details for that now :p**

**Anywho...thank you lovely readers for the reviews last chapter ^_^ reading them actually made me write quicker, I think xD lol. But, yeah, thank you soo~ much :D**

**Now...you may read ;) and maybe when you're done reading...your mouth will be like this: :O**  
><strong>XD I hope anyways.<strong>

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><p><span>It All Came Crashing Down: Literally!<span>

"S-bend or what?" Ash asked me, grinning.

I'd just climbed out of the water after _landing_ _the S-bend! _And even though he'd dried in the hot sun and hugging me must have been a cold, wet shock, he wrapped his strong arms around my life vest and hugged me hard. Best of all, Ash acting this way wasn't an unexpected hostess gift wrapped in Valentine's paper anymore. It was part of being his girlfriend. I was getting used to it, and I _loved_ expecting it.

Saturday we'd gone mud riding. Then we'd parked in the movie theater lot, watched the trucks go by, and just talked. We shared a milkshake. I was totally immune to his germs by now. Monday after dinner, when I thought I'd have to spend the evening with Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote a good space story but was not a good kisser, Ash asked me to go for a walk around the neighborhood with him. We held hands, which no longer seemed the least bit weird. Here it was Wednesday, and I hadn't had more than a fleeting thought of Gary since Friday with Ash in the lake.

I could have sworn Ash hadn't thought of Misty, either. When he kissed me (often! _really_ kissed me!), it felt like he was thinking of _me,_ not her. Yeah, he could have been faking. But as he'd said that first night at the tennis court, he wasn't exactly drama club material.

And it would come crashing down around us any minute. Ash never looked over his shoulder to make sure Misty was watching us when we kissed. He _did_ check for _Gary's_ reaction. I knew Mr. Ketchum was wrong about which of his boys were stabbing the other in the back, but I also knew Ash wouldn't walk away after being stabbed, any more than Gary would. So, I enjoyed my time alone with Ash as much as I could. Whenever Gary came around, I held my breath, waiting for the fall.

It wasn't so long a wait. The boys _looked _harmless enough this afternoon. Ash, Paul, and my brother had had fantastic wakeboarding runs, too. They'd finally gotten their wakeboarding legs back, as good as last year. Paul and Green lounged across the seats in the boat, basking in the late afternoon sunshine like big golden retrievers, watching me drip on the platform and wagging their tails vaguely. They felt what I'd been feeling since the first day we went out: sated with happy exertion. High.

Gary lay flat across the bow seat, but not for the same reason. He hadn't taken his turn yet. He said he didn't want to miss a call from Misty. She'd planned to come wakeboarding with us today (amid protests from the boys, because guests had never been allowed) and borrow my wakeboard since her bindings hadn't arrived yet (whatever). Her mom was going to bring her down, but they never showed. Gary had called Misty four times from the boat (to make Ash mad, Ash and I thought) and hadn't reached her. I found this strange. Where was she? Wasn't she waiting around for Gary's call with her hand poised on the answer button on her phone?

Beyond the windshield that separated us from him, we heard his cell phone ring. We knew it was Misty calling him back. And when his curse word burst over the windshield, we knew what she'd said hadn't been very nice.

Ash shrugged and turned back to me. Unlike Gary, he didn't flirt with me by assisting me with things I was perfectly capable of doing myself. He didn't help me take off with my equipment. He did sit on the back of the boat and watch me appreciatively. When I took off my life vest, he surveyed my bikini-clad hotness (ha) and gave me a naughty smile. I untied my bindings and lifted one foot out. He licked his lips as if he had a foot fetish. I burst into laughter.

Gary charged past the windshield into the back of the boat, eyes full of tears. "She broke up with me!" he wailed. "She broke up with me because she's still in love with Ash!"

We all went quiet. Only the _click-clack, click-clack _of cars on the bridge and the lapping of waves against the boat disturbed the silence. They boys weren't ribbing Gary. They must have been as shocked as I was that Gary would _admit _what Misty had said.

Gary was in love.

He sniffled. "I'm going to her house. Take me back to shore." When Paul didn't immediately slip into the driver's seat, Gary took a step toward the steering wheel himself.

"Gary," Paul said, standing in his way. "You haven't landed a good trick the whole week and a half we've been coming out. We only have today, tomorrow, and Friday to practice for the Crappy Festival. Take your turn first and then go to her house."

Gary cursed, and cursed, and cursed, and dove into the lake. We all rushed to the side of the boat and watched him glide to the surface twenty feet away, already swimming. We weren't so far from the Myers' yard that we needed to fish him out for his own safety. He swam until he could touch bottom, sloshed the rest of the way to land, and hit the grass running through the Myers' yard, through my yard, toward his house.

Ash said quietly, "I'm the biggest."

"Ash," I scolded him.

Paul and my brother looked from me to Ash and back to me, wondering what was going on between us. Frankly, I wondered the same thing. I wasn't sure what I'd wanted or expected Ash to say when we finally got our wish for Gary and Misty to break up. However, _I'm the biggest_ wasn't it.

We drove back to the wharf still in silence - except, of course the deafening motor. Ash and I sat across the aisle from each other without glancing at each other.

Something was about to happen.

And everyone sensed it.

Paul and Green took more than their share of equipment into the warehouse, leaving Ash and me alone in the boat. As they came back out, Paul looked down at us from the wharf and said, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do" - which made me wish I hadn't confessed to Ash that Paul and I had kissed. After five years of hiding this from everyone, he had to hint about it _now?_ Whatever was coming for Ash and me, it was going to be hard enough already.

Drew asked me, "Do you want me to tell Dad you'll be late for dinner?"

"No," I said. "I won't be long."

We watched Drew and Paul walk toward the houses. They stopped to talk. Paul took a swipe at Drew. Drew shoved Paul. They went their separate ways. Friends to the end, the simplest relationship possible.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash snapped into the silence. "You won't be long?"

"It's dusk in the summer. Mosquitoes," I said, slapping at a bug. While my mouth spouted this drivel, my mind worked on what I really wanted to say to Ash. But I had no more idea than I'd had out on the lake.

You know what didn't help? When he reached behind his neck and worked at the knot in the silver chain. I knew what was coming. It took him a few seconds to get through that knot. Even though the whole time I was thinking about what to say when he asked me to turn around, I was speechless when the moment came. I turned around on my seat. He tied the pokeball around my neck. The metal was hot against my breastbone. I pressed the red-and-white pendant with my fingertips. Turning back to him, I murmured, "You're giving me a piece of you."

He looked over at me. We were together for real, and he was _so hot._ I should have been giggling with delight and dorkiness. The angry look in his brown eyes broke my heart.

"Misty told Gary she likes you better," I said, "but you don't want her back. All you've wanted was to get revenge on Gary. You're giving me this to show him you don't even want what he can't have."

Ash's eyes narrowed at me. I made an effort not to shrink back against the side of the boat. He said evenly, "I'm giving it to you because I want to give it to you."

"Your timing is off. Usually a boy wouldn't laugh at his brother hitting rock bottom, then show his love for his girlfriend practically in the same breath." Now _he_ was shrinking against the side of the boat, which made me brave enough to throw in still more sarcasm. "I don't have a lot of experience with this, but that is my theory."

He closed his eyes and said in a rush, "I'm in love with you."

I took a breath to tell him if he really meant it, he wouldn't have to say it with his eyes closed. But he didn't just have his eyes closed. Those worry lines had appeared between his brows. He was in pain, concentrating hard to make it go away, like the second time he broke his collarbone wakeboarding, and lay still as death in the floorboard of the boat and wouldn't let anyone touch him but me.

He opened his eyes but they remained plastered against the boat. He looked small, if that was possible. "That's my plot. You were right, I had a plot, and that's my whole plot. I'm in love with you. The last nine months with Drew away at college have been freaking torture for me, because I didn't have an excuse to come to your house. If I came over without Drew there, you'd know. I hardly ever saw you the whole school year. I thought I might finally have a chance with you since I was about to get my license. We could go places together, alone. I could get you away from Gary. But the more I hinted we should go out, the more you talked about dating Gary. When I heard Misty liked me, I asked her out, and I kept asking her out. To make you jealous. And at the tennis court that night when you said we should make Misty and Gary jealous, I nearly had a heart attack. I thought you saw right through me."

He looked so hurt, and his eyelashes were so long. I had fallen in love with him. I _wished_ he were in love with me too. But telling me this elaborate lie, he'd betrayed the truth.

"You don't love me," I said. "You're competing with Gary. Maybe you've even convinced yourself you love me, but it all comes back to Gary."

His expression changed from hurt back to anger. "Last Friday night in the lake didn't mean anything to you."

Friday night had been the best night of my life. He was picking up each thing I loved about my life, grinding it to a point, and pushing it through my heart. I'd thought only Gary knew how to do that.

"The past week and a half hasn't meant anything to you," he went on. "The past sixteen years-"

"Sixteen years!" I howled.

"You _told_ me you're stuck on Gary," he shouted. His voice made the metal wall of the warehouse hum. "You think your mother chose him for you-"

"No, I don't!" Well, maybe I did. And maybe I didn't care so much anymore, but this was hard to explain while yelling.

"Look, Ash. Let's say you _had_ been in love with me all our lives, which, by the way, I don't believe for a second." Because why would any boy fall in love with a girl like me? "What you loved about me would have been exactly what I hate about myself. To stay the person you wanted, I'd have to stay the same. I want to change."

"You think your _mother_ wants you to chance," he corrected me. "Dawn, when your mother said that, she was kidding."

"You weren't there. You don't know. Your _mother_ didn't laugh."

"My mother _never_ laughs. It's called a dry wit. You're basing your whole life on one conversation you overheard when you were four years old that you don't even remember right."

I felt like I'd been slapped. When I'd shared my deepest secret with him, it never occurred to me that he'd throw it back in my face. Ash, of all people, had betrayed me. I stepped out of the boat, onto the wharf. "Let's end this now before we ruin our friendship."

"Too late," he called after me.

I intended to flounced across his yard and mine, but I ran straight into a cloud of gnats. I spent the rest of the walk pressing one nostril closed with my finger while I expelled gnats from the other. Eat your heart out, Ash!

Except I _didn't_ want him to eat his heart out. I wanted to be friends with him. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to make out with him in the lake some more - that was for damn sure. I wanted him to stare longingly after me from the boat as I flounced back to my house, which sounded a lot like I wanted him to eat his heart out. I didn't know what I wanted.

I'd made it to my garage before I realized I was still wearing the pokeball necklace. I couldn't get the knot undone. I turned the knot around to the front but still couldn't pick it apart. The pendant was searing a hole through my skin. I cut the chain with garden shears and tried to grind the pendant into dust in my fist like a superhero. I opened my hand and found the outline of the pokeball pressed into my palm.

I didn't sleep well that night. This was probably a good thing. If I'd had to lie through one more dream about Gary being a tease, I would have to slap him. When I woke up and found myself sleepwalking, who knew what wakeboarding posters I might have destroyed? I might even have found myself choking my childhood teddy bear, Mr. Wuggles, which would have traumatized me for life.

In the morning, I walked to the marina with the pokeball in my pocket (actually, Ash's pocket, the pocket of his cutoff jeans), intending to give it back to him and say something appropriate. This would have been a stretch for me, I know. To save my friendship with Ash, I would have found a way to do it.

Mrs. Ketchum assigned us both to the warehouse. Great, _now_ she finally believed we were together? I tried to look at the long day with him as an opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with him. Another one. Actually, the convo the evening before had been more of a spleen-to-spleen.

I could never find the right time. He was busy locating boats to take down. I was busy checking the oil. The full-time workers wandered in and out. Besides, this day of all days, he worked with his shirt off. Sweat glistened on his tanned muscles, and his black hair fell a little in his eyes. He was so hot that I felt intimidated. He was telling me to eat _my_ heart out, and it was working.

There were now a few instances when I _could_ have screwed up my courage, sidled up to him, handed him the necklace, and talked him down. But whenever I started toward him with this in mind, he flashed those brown eyes at me, and I felt that slap all over again.

It was such a relief to go wakeboarding that afternoon. Yes, I'd be trapped in the boat for over an hour with Ash and Gary, but at least I was out of the warehouse and into the strong sun and oppressive humidity. The Crappy Festival show was in two days. We all needed to nail down the course we wanted the boat to follow and the tricks we planned to do - especially Gary. Maybe even thinking about the show would get our minds off each other.

Or not. Ash climbed out of the water and onto the platform after busting ass four times. He had a stare-down with Gary, who was getting into the water for his turn. If two girls had been in a fight like this, one of them would have flipped over the side of the boat rather than face probably the tenth stare-down of the day. But Ash and Gary were not two girls. And because I was a girl, it stressed me out more to watch them than it stressed them to growl at each other, teeth bared.

I left my seat and slid into the bow, watching ahead of us as the boat drifted across the choppy water kicked up by the afternoon traffic.

The bench sank next to me, pulling me down into the hold. "So you still want Gary?" Ash hissed, "Let me give you some advice."

"No thanks." I leaned further over the bow to watch the large waves. A whitecap rolled by. A_ whitecap?_ Really? You didn't see those on the lake very often. The water was choppier than I'd ever seen it.

"At first," Ash went on, "we thought we'd make him want something I had. Now he wants something _you_ have."

"Boobs?" I asked, trying to sound bored.

"Your place at the end of the wakeboarding show. Throw a jump and fake an injury. You have to make it look like you're really hurt, so Paul doesn't rib Gary about girls making sacrifices just to go out with him."

Paul cranked the boat to pull Gary up, and my brother spotted. With the motor roaring, I was free to tell Ash (loudly) exactly what I thought of that plan. I sat up and turned to face him.

Before I can get the words out, he leaned close and said, "I told you before you're not a good actress. I have a lot more confidence in you now. I thought you liked me. You had me fooled."

I stared into his cocoa eyes, trying to see what was behind them. "You really want me to throw a jump and go out with Gary?"

"This has nothing to do with me," he said grimly.

"It has everything to do with y-"

He put his finger to my lips. "If you want Gary, this is what you need to do, because this is how he is. Love him or leave him. I'm just trying to help." He slid off the seat with a high zipping sound of his board shorts against the vinyl and bounced toward the back of the boat. He plopped in the seat across the aisle from my brother and crossed his feet on the edge of the boat, relaxed, satisfied by a job well done. Gary landed a front flip, then tumbled a couple of extra times before face-planting, Ash's shoulders shook. He was laughing.

"Dawn!" Drew shouted, standing directly in front of me. The boat drifted again, and Gary dripped on the platform. "I said, did you see the log? I guess you didn't see the log, since you were in a coma."

"Log schmog." I stood up and reached for my life vest.

Drew followed me as I stepped over Ash and Gary, who didn't bother to move their feet out of the aisle as I passed. Just like old times. "There's a huge log out near the pontoon boat," Drew said. "When we get near it, I'm veering to the right of where we usually go. Okay?"

"Okay," I said, sliding over the back of the boat to the platform and stepping into the bindings on my wakeboard.

"To the _right,"_ Paul laughed.

"I said _okay."_ I was in no mood to be tease about my driving right now.

The drone of the motorboat was great for thinking, fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on whether you hated yourself. At the moment, I wasn't enjoying it too much. I was supposed to be pinning down my routine for the show, but I just did flips and 360s automatically, my mind on Ash.

Staring at him in the boat told me nothing. He was so far away that he was just a tan face with dark hair, and if he'd changed places with Gary, I wouldn't have known. But I stared at the boy I thought was Ash and tried to figure out exactly what he was plotting.

If I pretended to get hurt so Gary could take my place in the show, he probably wouldn't ask me out. He'd watched Ash and me while we were together, that was for sure. And I'd thought at first that the light had dawned and he'd seen my ravishing beauty for the first time. Looking back, though, I thought he'd watched Ash more than me. Gary had worried Misty would get jealous and Ash would snatch her away again.

If Gary _did_ ask me out, though, I'd know for sure that my internal makeover had worked - two days before the deadline of my sixteenth birthday! And I'd also know Ash had been right. Gary was so low, he couldn't stand to ask out a girl who'd shown him up. It was almost worth throwing a jump just to see what happened and get some closure on this issue.

I could do any old jump and pretend to hurt my ankle. I'd hurt it last summer when I fell and my foot came halfway out of the binding, which was why I'd laced up the bindings so tightly since then. Faking a limp would be more difficult. But I'd need to limp for only two days, until the Crappy Festival show. The question was whether I should complain about it enough to go to the hospital and have them find nothing, which seemed like a waste of time and money. Ash had hurt himself before and had been in a lot of pain but refused to go to a hospital, so there _was _some precedent for this. Of course, he finally had to go, and his arm was broken in three places. There was also the small detail that Ash was like that and I was not.

Suddenly I found myself shooting further and faster beyond the boat than I'd expected. We were turning at the bridge; just under the words, _AUH LOVES DAON. _I pulled up and took control of the run.

What had I been thinking? Had I seriously been considering throwing a jump and pretending to be hurt just to get a boy? What kind of boy did you catch with a ploy like that?

And furthermore, what kind of person was Ash to give me the idea?

I decided right then that I was _not_ going to pretend to get hurt and throw this show for Gary or anybody. _Furthermore,_ I would skip the party tomorrow night, because there would be no one there I wanted to see, except May. Well, okay, maybe I wouldn't skip the party, because who could skip a party next door? But I wouldn't enjoy it. Or I would hang out with May, ignoring the boys. _Furthermore, _sometime between now and then, maybe tonight since I obviously would not have a boy to go out with, I would ask Drew to drive me to town. I would buy myself something as a birthday present from me to me.

Something dark flashed past the corner of my eye. I turned and saw an enormous log tumbling gently in the water. Just then the pull on the rope changed, and I remembered my brother was veering to the right to avoid the log. I veered to the right with him as I headed for the pontoon boat to ride the rails.

Only I was coming up too fast on the backside of the pontoon boat. I glanced over at the boys and motioned to Ash to slow down. I'd screwed this trick already.

Ash was motioning to _me,_ an exaggerated wave away from the pontoon boat. And he was mouthing something. _Your other right._ I realized what I'd done then and dropped the rope. The side of the pontoon boat emblazoned _KETCHUM'S MARINA_ zoomed toward me.

_Smack!_

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: :o Hectic chapter, huh? Misty broke up with Gary. Gary was crying and hurt. Ash finally told Dawn he loves her. Ash and Dawn got into a bad argument. And <strong>**then what happened at the end happened :o **

**Ooh~ I'm very anxious for reviews on this chapter! :) So please~ everyone that is reading this story, plleeeaasseee review. I get a lot of favorites and story alerts for this story, so I know there's a lot of people reading this. Therefore, please do me a favor and leave a nice little review :)**

**Okay, the next chapter will be up Monday. It's already halfway done :D (it'll be a short chapter) I think I actually would've finished it today, but I had to force myself to stop so I could write more of Cwohs2 XD. Anyways, I actually think I'll be able to finish this story this week, before my surgery. I hope I do, because that means I can immediately start the sequel when I get out that damn hospital :D. Isn't that awesome? :D But~ I have to finish chapter 16 cwohs2. If I can update that sometime this week, I'll put that aside until I get out of the hospital and focus on finishing this story this week. Only 4 chapters left! ;)**

**Btw, PorcelainDollxx I might take you up on your offer of helping ;D Give me like a day (starting Monday, I have a dumb project to do tomorrow -.- shouldn't take long, though) If I come up with nothing...I'm coming to you xD.**

**On that note, please, _please _review ^_^ and I shall see you guys Monday for sure :D**

**- Angel :D**


	16. A Crash Landing!

**Author's Notes: Told you I'd update today, Monday ;) This chapter is very~ short, so it took no time to finish where I left off. I was halfway finished, as well, so yeah :D**

**Well, I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed last chapter and left _good _things to say. All bad is higly irrelevant and will be ignored. So Thank you to those of you who reviewed with content last chapter ^_^ You're awesome so don't forget that :D**

**Alright, enough small talk :p it's time to get on with this chapter and read~ :D**

**Enjoy, my lovelies ^_***

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><p><span>A Crash Landing! <span>

This probably would have been a lot easier if I'd gotten amnesia or at least felt a little woozy from the impact, but I didn't. I knew exactly what was happening as I slipped wakeboard-first under the pontoon boat and slowed to a stop. The buoyant wakeboard on my feet and the life vest hugging my chest stuck to me like magnets to the slippery underside of the boat.

My head - I had cracked my head open when I hit the boat, and the pain was almost unbearable, but I had nowhere to put it. Blood curled around me, backlit by sunbeams streaming through the water at the edges of the boat. I needed to get out from under. I was running out of air.

I tried to kick myself over to the edge - but my feet were still stuck to the wakeboard bindings. Bending over to untie them was the only way out. I would run out of air before then. I could hardly think of anything except running out of air, the throbbing pain in my head, and the blood forming graceful curlicues in front of my eyes.

I reached one hand as far toward the edge of the boat as I could, hoping I could pull hard with every bit of life I had left and slip out from under, dragging the wakeboard with me. My hand sank into a firm, gelatinous mass. Without looking, I knew it was bryozoa. I had died and gone to hell. This was how my mother must have felt. The water had always been my friend. The water had betrayed me.

Then they came for me. They were under the pontoon boat with me, blurry and green like ghosts in the water. One boy shoved the wakeboard. The other boy put a strong arm across my chest and pushed off from the bottom of the boat with his feet. He took me lower in the water - wrong direction, hello, I could hardly suppress the urge to breathe in water instead of air. I struggled. He let me go. The wakeboard and the life vest propelled me to the surface, clear of the boat.

I popped into the air, gasping. Gary put his arms around me again and held my head above the water so I could breathe. The thought crossed my mind of rejecting the boy's help and resisting the damsel-in-distress role, but really it was a little thought that had no effect on letting Gary help me breathe. The more I breathed, the harder my head throbbed, so I had very little thought.

And a little thought that had been wrong about Gary. Mom had sent me a sign. She'd sent Gary to save my life. Maybe he_ was _worth a faked injury, after all.

Of course, there was also Drew down at my feet, and the fact that the motorboat had been only twenty yards away from me when I went down, so maybe it wasn't Mom's doing. God, my head hurt like a mother-

Drew got me loose from the wakeboard. Gary held me up to Paul in the boat, who grabbed me under the arms and lifted me in. Immediately, Gary climbed the ladder and came to me. He pulled me out of the life vest, then eased me down and cradled my head in his lap.

Just like in my dream, he looked down at me with those beautiful eyes. The sunlight turned his hair, shoulders and broad chest gold as he pressed both hands to my head.

Unlike in my dream, he dripped water and tears on my face, stinging my eyes. The blood didn't help either. Oozing from Gary's hand, it crawled like mosquitoes on my skin.

"Calm down," Drew said. "Calm down. Dammit, would you calm down, idiot?"

"I'm fine," I said between heaving coughs. "At least I can move my toes, so I won't have to ride the short bus."

"I meant Ash."

I stared past the pain in my head, upward at Ash's chin. Ash held me, not Gary. I hadn't recognized him upside down, without the pokeball around his neck.

"Gary," Paul called. "We've got her. Let's go."

The engine started, and the boat lurched into high speed. Down in Ash's lap, below the sides of the boat, the motor sounded, muffled, more than a buzz than a roar. Without the music blaring, for once.

"Let me see," Drew said, bending next to Ash.

I cringed and closed my eyes and tried to go to a different place, away from the pain as they fumbled on my forehead. Poked at my forehead. I came back from that different place and said, "DON'T TOUCH IT!"

"It's going to need stitches," Drew said. "They might have to shave your hair a little. But if they do, I'll shave mine too. So will Ash. Right, Ash?"

"It's a wonder you weren't killed," Ash cried. "It's a wonder you didn't at least put your eye out."

Drew said, once again, "Ash, would you _please _calm down?"

I squeezed my eyes more tightly shut.

"I can't believe you actually did it," Ash said. "I can't believe you're that stupid."

"I didn't," I mouthed. That's all I could do. Gary and Ash had been my whole life for the last couple of weeks, but it was surprising how little I cared about them when I suddenly had a throbbing headache the size of the lake. Even if I'd wanted to, I didn't have the strength to fight. Ash wouldn't believe me, anyway.

At first, all five Ketchums plus Drew crowded into the emergency room with me. The nurses kicked everyone out except Mrs. Ketchum. They must have mistaken her for someone motherly and soothing. She barked at people and insisted on seeing their credentials before she'd let them touch me. Then Paul came back and said Ash had taken a swing at Gary and gotten them all kicked out of the waiting room. So Mrs. Ketchum herded them all home where they could beat the hell out of each other in peace. She sent Drew in to sit with me.

I didn't have a concussion, and they didn't shave my head or anything traumatic like that. After the first prick of anesthetic, my head didn't even hurt much. Which was a good thing, because Drew went to buy himself some Pop-Tarts out of the snack machine. I lay there by myself on the hospital bed and stared at the water-stained ceiling while the doc stitched me up, scolded me, and left to find me some pain pills for when the anesthetic wore off. I felt very sorry for myself and very alone until Dad showed up, with Joy.

Dad grasped my hand in both of his. "Dawn. Oh, my Dawn." He stared to cry softly.

"Dad, I'm okay." I patted his arm: there, there.

"Trevor," said Joy. Her hand was on Dad's back. "Deep breaths."

Dad sniffed a deep breath through his nose while Joy held his gaze and moved her hands in circles in the air in front of her, encouraging him to breathe therapeutically. The way they were acting, people at the hospital who didn't know them might mistake them for a couple. A very odd couple, with Joy in her tie-dyed hippie costume and Dad in his lawyer costume from the office.

"Here," I said easing off the bed. "Lie down, Dad."

He switched places with me, never loosening his grip on my hand. "I don't want you to be scared because of this."

"She won't," Joy said.

"I won't," I said.

"I want you out there wakeboarding again tomorrow," he sobbed.

"I can't, Dad. The doctor said I'm not supposed to go swimming until my stitches come out in a few days."

"Then I want you wakeboarding the day they come out. And do exactly what you were doing when you got hurt.

I thought about this. "It would be difficult to replicate."

"Do you understand me?" he said, still crying.

"Shhh," Joy said, patting his shoulder.

"Yeah, Dad," I said, looking toward Drew in the doorway. He munched his Pop-Tart. I twirled my finger beside my ear: _crazy. _Drew nodded. At least I wasn't the _only _sane person around here.

A nurse brought me some pills, which I took gladly because I didn't want my brain to hurt like that again, ever. They weren't supposed to be strong enough to put me to sleep, but they did. Or it was the medicine combined with the adrenaline draining away. The fatigue from nearly drowning, touching bryozoa, being sobbed over by a couple of he-men, etc. I'd had such a busy day.

All I knew for sure was that I stretched out on the backseat of Dad's car and slept on the way home. When we got there, I wasn't moving. They prodded me, but I could _not _see myself climbing the stairs to my room. I did _not _see why they couldn't let me sleep in the car parked in the garage. The backseat felt delicious.

Drew carried me up the stairs, and Dad tucked me into bed. Dad and Drew spoke softly in the doorway.

Dad: "She didn't even wake up. You be sure and come get her if there's a fire."

Drew: "A fire. Right, Dad."

I laughed myself back to sleep. A fire. Really! In the last twenty-four hours, I'd been through everything bad I could imagine. What else could happen?

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Ooh~ What else could happen? ;) Well, the answer to that is...You have to wait until next chapter to find out ;D HA! I will hopefully get it up Wednesday. If not, then Thursday for sure.<strong>

**Hehe, I hope you guys enjoyed this extrememly short chapter xD. Please leave a review and your thoughts on this chapter ^_^ and I will see you all Wednesday or Thursday :)**

**- Angel :)**


	17. Just One Plan After Another Geesh!

**Author's Notes: :DDD Wooo! Update! ^_^ For some reason, I'm so happy to be updating this story :D Hehe, Thaaaank Youuu to everyone who reviewed the last chapter :DD I love your reviews ^_^**

**And thank you DayDreamerSharon for that long~ review xD J/k, I know why it had to be long. XD Hopefully your messaging is working again. Btw, tips on Tinsicas? I always screw up when the time comes to turn my body forward in the middle of my cartwheel into a front walkover.**

**Again, thank you all for the reviews :D Now, on to the chapter ;D Enjoy~**

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><p><span>Just One Plan After Another. Geesh!<span>

"Dawn, when we're old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend." Gary kissed me. With his mouth still on my mouth, he pulled me off the bow seat and down in the floorboard, out of the wind.

I broke the kiss to say, "I guess this means we're old enou-"

He cut me off by kissing me. His tongue circled deep inside my mouth, and I opened for more. When I got bored with this (the idea of getting bored with making out still caused me to laugh), I lifted my chin so he could kiss my neck. Then I turned my head so he could kiss my ear. Wow, this was the best dream ever, and so _long! _Suddenly anxious, I peered into the back of the boat to see whether the other boys were watching us. The boat was empty.

"Who's driving?" I gasped.

"You are," Gary said.

"Oh." This made me a little nervous, but not nervous enough to wake me up or anything. I turned my head so he could kiss my other ear.

"Listen," he breathed. "What's that?"

"The boat motor," I murmured without thinking. "And your usual junky music."

He propped himself up on his forearms and cocked his head to hear better. "Actually, I think it's Big Time Rush." The Pokeball dangled above my eyes.

"Ash!" I cried, sitting bold upright in my bed. I peered over at the clock blaring "Nothing Even Matters." No wonder the dream had lasted so long! My alarm had gone off, but I'd slept right through fifteen minutes of the radio. The photo of my mother lay flat on the bedside table. Drew must have knocked it over by accident last night when he put me in bed.

"Stupid subconscious!" I slapped myself in the back of the head. "Ow!" The shock of the slap rippled through my brain and into the gash on my forehead. I cupped my hand over the stitches.

A soft knock sounded at the door. Drew leaned in without waiting for an answer. He glanced at the clock, then at me. "Breakfast is being served to the psych ward in the dining hall. You want me to send up an orderly to help you get out of bed?"

I stuck my tongue out at him. I didn't mind psych ward jokes from Drew. He was the only one who understood. Except-

"Ash came to see you."

I took in a sharp breath. "When?"

"Last night and this morning."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" I wailed.

"Because any other time in the history of your life, you would have snuck in my room and rearranged my sock drawer in revenge for waking you up. You know I need the white socks in the front."

Drew is such a neat freak. "Well, what'd he say?"

Drew gathered a year's worth of wakeboarding magazines and his copy of _A Series of Unfortunate Events_ book and stacked them neatly on the floor so he could sit on the edge of my bed. "Last night he was just checking on you. This morning he came over to say he's taking the day off work. But he wanted you to know, he's through.

"He's through? With what?" With Gary? Fighting with Gary?

"With you."

Of course he was through with me. He'd told me as much while I bled in his lap yesterday. As long as I heard it with my own ears, I could hope I'd misread the whole situation. Hearing it from Drew made it real. Almost. "Are you making this up?"

"No. He's really mad at you. I've never seen him this mad. Not even at Gary." Drew thumbed through his book to make sure I'd hadn't gotten anything on it. "But I want you to know some good will come out of your crash. It's inspired me to do something I've wanted to do for a long time."

"Remove your own appendix?"

"Ask May out."

My head hurt. "May? Why?"

"I think she's been coming to the Ketchums' parties to see me. I know, I know, this seems as impossible to me as it does to you, but I really think she likes me. Wait, scratch that, she _does." _A smug little grin played on his face.

I grunted a little with the increasing pain in my head. I didn't want to tell him this, but it might save him some humiliation later. "Drew, you're wrong. She's been coming to their parties to see _me. _We're friends."

He squinted at me. "Why do you think so?"

"She told me so."

"Couldn't it be one of those schemes, like you and Ash are pulling on Gary? She's pretending to be your friend so she can see me without admitting that's why she's at the party."

"May wouldn't do that to me," I said. My pulse began to race, and my head throbbed harder with every heartbeat. "What do you mean, one of those schemes like Ash and I are pulling on Gary?"

"I figure if you can brain yourself on a pontoon boat just to get a boy to ask you out, I can ask a girl out and brave a little rejection that most likely won't come."

Now I winced against the throbbing in my head. "Ash told you I crashed just to get Gary to ask me out?"

"Yeah. He told me you've faked going out from the beginning. He's _really mad _about you crashing." Drew leaned across the bed and nabbed another one of his books, which I'd been telling him since last summer I did _not_ borrow, when it actuality I had lost it under some (clean!) laundry and didn't come across it until last week. "Ash and Gary have always fought," Drew said, tucking the book under his arm for safekeeping. "But you've made it a million times worse. Can you imagine the five of us wakeboarding together for the rest of the summer?"

"No," I admitted. It sounded about as fun as getting a tooth pulled every afternoon. "But I didn't start this in the first place. Gary did. Gary stole Misty from Ash."

"Ash never liked Misty anyway," Drew said. "He was madder about the insult than the girl. He was in love with you. If it hadn't been for you wanting to fool Gary, Ash would have calmed down eventually and let Gary have Misty. We'd be back to normal by now."

"Reverse, please," I said. "Ash was in love with-"

"You. Where did I go wrong? I raised a little brother, not a femme fatale."

I didn't quite get it. Could Ash have been telling me the truth about his plot? It seemed too good to be true, and too awful if I had screwed this up. "Did Ash say he's in love with me?"

_"Was_ in love with you. Yes, that's what he said. How the hell else would I know? I wish I didn't. This place is getting to be like that awful girls' show, what's it called? The chicks in my dorm call dibs on the TV in the rec center and won't let us watch basketball."

_"Laguna Beach?"_

"Yes!"

"Get out of my room."

As he stood, I made a weak grab for the book under his arm, but he dodged me. He closed the door behind him.

Ash was in love with me. He wasn't just saying it to keep me with him while he made Gary jealous. He was in love with me.

Head throbbing, I looked around my room, which still reflected the boy I'd been before I started transforming myself. I hadn't gotten around to a room makeover with purple flowers and a fuzzy pink ottoman. As the air conditioning clicked on, the fighter jet models I'd built from kits swayed at the end of their strings near the ceiling. I was a little brother. I was a mess.

Ash had been in love with me, just like this.

Now he wasn't.

It was a good thing Advil took care of my headache. If I'd had to stay out of work and spend the day home, I would have driven myself insane (if I wasn't already). As it was, I showered faster than usual to make up for lost time, taking care to keep my stitches out of the spray. I ate breakfast as usual, except Dad gave me a big hug and sobbed a little into my hair. As usual, Drew and I opened the door to hike across our yard and the Ketchums' to the marina-

-and there stood Gary with his finger on the doorbell. He asked me brightly, "Will you go to the party tonight with me?"

My brain said, _Hooray! I'm going out with Gary! My time has come!_

My body was strangely quiet. There was no happy skin. My brain reached down through my nerve endings to poke at my heart and make sure it was okay. My heard said, _Eh._ At this point I realized I _did_ need to go back to the shrink. I sagged against the door jamb, rolled my eyes, and uttered something very unladylike.

Drew stepped around me and wagged his cell phone between his fingers. With a pointed look at Gary, he told me, "Call me if you need me."

"I could take you," Gary shouted after my brother. "Bring it on." His voice echoed around the garage. Then he turned back to me and sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that. Look, I told my dad we'd come to work a little late this morning because we're going to fish your wakeboard out from the lake. Let's talk."

I followed him down to my pier, where he'd tied the wakeboarding boat. Cleary it _did_ occur to him to dock in a certain place to save _someone _a long walk. Himself. Just not me. We stepped in, and I looked around on the floor. "Who cleaned the blood out of the boat for me? I was going to do it this morning."

"Ash," Gary said. "When we get to the pontoon boat, you've got to tell me this story. He was saying it was his fault and crying the whole time. Pussy." He slapped his hand over his mouth. "Sorry. I almost forgot you weren't a guy." Before I could offer a choice response, he cranked the motor and then the music.

As we zoomed toward the pontoon boat, I noticed that a dump truck had mistakenly unloaded a pile of soot onto the side of the bridge. The closer we got, the more clearly I could see it wasn't a pile of soot after all but carefully applied spray paint marking out the letters _AUH LOVES DAON. _Ash had been busy. He must have gone out in the motorboat in the near-dark last night, or the near-dark this morning. He wanted to get the offensive words off the bridge as quickly as he could. They would have haunted him until he got rid of them. He hated me that much.

"Junior!" Gary stood in front of me, clapping his hands. "Little Green, or blue in your case." I rolled my eyes. he'd stopped the boat next to the pontoon boat. "Drew left your wakeboard floating here, so let's check under the pontoon boat first." He handed me one of the oars that motorboats carry in case their engines stop when they run over logs. As we poked around the pontoons, he asked, "Why's Ash so pissed at you?"

"It's complicated. We've only been going out to make you and Misty mad." I couldn't believe I was telling him this. But my brilliant ploys had gotten me into this fix, and I'd lost hope they could get me out. Also, I must have bled out my last lick of sense. "I've sort of had a thing for you."

He pulled his oar from under the boat and put all his weight on it, as if he needed it to keep from collapsing. _"You._ Have a thing for _me?" _

_"Had."_

He made a face. "Ugh!"

This should have been the low point in my life, the one I'd dreaded for over a decade: rejection by Gary. Now that it had finally happened, I didn't feel humiliated. I was angry. "What do you mean, _ugh?_ You flirted with me a couple of weeks ago, before your first party. Remember wiping bryozoa on me? That's the mating dance of the brain-dead Ketchum brothers."

"Oh, yeah! I'd forgotten all about the bryozoa." He waved his hand in the air, dismissing the bryozoa incident like a pesky yellow jacket. "Ash was acting protective of you that day for some reason. I got the idea he might like you a little, so I figured I'd push his buttons. I can't see myself really coming on to you, ever." He shoved his oar under the boat again. "No offense."

"None taken, you ass."

He glanced at me sideways. "When I said 'Ugh,' I just meant, 'Ugh what could Buddy possibly see in little old me?'"

_Sure you did. _"I honestly can't remember," I said poking my oar under the boat, too. "Anyway, Ash thinks I crashed into the pontoon boat on purpose so you could close the wakeboarding show again, and you'd like me better. I didn't but Ash thinks I did." I ran my finger over the little dent my thick skull had made in the aluminum side of the boat. "I guess he was willing to take the fake love just so far."

"So you've faked being together."

I glanced toward the bridge, at the scribble that once had _AUH LOVES DAON. _"Yeah."

"You faked flirting with each other on the desk in the living room."

"Yeah." It hadn't _felt_ like faking, but what did I know?

"You faked making out on the end of the dock at the party last Friday? And disappearing into the lake? Because that was convincing."

"Yes. I mean, we really made out, but we weren't really in love." At least, I hadn't realized it at the time.

"That little shit!" he yelled so loudly that I worried about the innocent ears of Joy and the children around the bend. I imagined Joy pretending she hadn't heard a thing as the shout echoed around their fenced yard.

"Now why are _you_ so pissed?" I asked.

"Because it worked! He stole Misty from me!"

I stomped my foot on the floor of the boat, like a girl. "You stole Misty from him in the first place, just to make him mad. Even if you _thought_ you really liked her by the time she broke up with you, she only seemed like something you'd want because Ash had her in the first place."

He brought in his oar again and leaned on it. "I may be shallow, Dawn, but I'm not a monster." He gazed downstream. "I don't think your wakeboard's under here. Maybe the current caught it."

I looked downstream, too, in the general direction of the dam several miles away. My wakeboard had probably gotten stuck in one the gates and cut off the power supply to the tri-county area. The way my morning was going, the hydroelectric police would be waiting for me on the marina dock.

"Let's try one more place." He cranked the engine, drove to the nearby bank, and cut the power again. As the boat drifted, we used the oars to shift the logs and leaves washed up against the edge of the woods. "You think I'm a monster," he said quietly.

"I think we all are."

A gust of wind blew us along faster. It swooped through the woods, swaying the trees and littering us with blossoms and leaves and delicate tree crap.

"Well," he said finally. "I didn't steal Misty just to make Ash mad. I _pretended_ that's what I was doing. That's what Ash would think anyway. But really, I've been into her for so long. I couldn't stand the thought of going to college without finding out if she liked me, too."

I was going to yell at him for being so selfish until it occurred to me that his was pretty much how I'd felt about _him._

"I've seen the way she looks at Ash," he went on. "Girls don't look at me like that. They look at me, sure, but not like that."

Cunning as Gary was about other people; surely he couldn't be this obtuse about himself? In exasperation, I pointed out, "You don't look at _them_ like that."

"I look at Misty like that. And she says she can tell from the way I treat Ash that I have no soul. I could have sworn I did." He laughed.

Misty might have more sense that I'd given her credit for. She'd never actually insulted me, besides calling me a 'ho to her friends when I did the secret handshake with Ash, which was understandable. I had no reason to dislike her, other than the obvious boy-ploys. And no reason at all to think she was stupid.

"But over the last couple of weeks," Gary continued, "I've seen how good you and Ash are together. And how good Misty and I are together. Maybe Ash and Misty are good together, too, but if they are, I'd like to rip Misty's heart out and throw it down in the driveway and drive back and fourth over it in my truck a couple of times and give it back to her. I know how you feel the same way about Ash."

I stared at him and wondered what my mother had been thinking.

"I don't think we need to worry about that, though," he said. "Misty wants to get back with Ash, but Ash doesn't want Misty, if you can believe that! He called her last night and he dried up and had this _reasonable, adult _conversation with her. He told her it was over between them, and not just because she'd made out with me when I snapped my fingers. He went out with her in the first place to make you jealous."

None of this sounded like something Ash would share with Gary on purpose. Drew, maybe, or Paul, but not Gary. "Did you listen on this conversation?"

Gary gave me this _how dare you insinuate such a thing_ look. This told me, yes, he had listened in on this conversation.

He went on, "So we know they won't get back together. If they do look like they're getting back together at the party tonight, Ash will be faking. All we have to do to get him back with you is convince him you're better than nothing. Which..." He looked me up and down, then shrugged.

The wind gusted again, lifting up sections of his hair and flattening his T-shirt against his strong chest. He was a lot like Ash, and completely different. I said, "You are a sad, sad, little man."

"I am what I am. So, I know this will sound kind of gross, but will you make out with me at the party?"

I poked at the shoreline with my oar. "This is a bad idea. It was a bad idea the first time I had it, and it's a bad idea now." But I might as well try something to get Ash back, right? I'd hit bottom. Nothing we did could make things worse.

"If you don't do it for yourself, do it for me. Dawn, I'm in love with Misty. That's never happened to me before. I'm not willing to let that go without a fight. And if you feel the same way about Ash, seems like you wouldn't let it go, either." He took a few steps closer to me in the boat. "He holds a grudge, you know."

I snorted. "I know." Nothing had ever been more obvious.

"You can't just hope he'll come around someday. He won't. You have to bring him back. Hey, what do we have here?" He leaned way over the side of the boat, grabbed a flower-printed edge underneath a log, and brought up my dripping wakeboard. Handing it to me, he said, "Your chariot, mademoiselle."

It was exactly like something Ash would say. I clung to the wet wakeboard and squeezed my eyes shut to keep from crying. "Okay," I said. "I'll do it. Okay."

It all would have been hilarious if it hadn't sucked.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Oooh~! Dawn and Gary, scheduled for a make out session at the party! Wonder how that will go~ ;) Haha chapter 18 shall be good :D I don't have to go to school tomorrow (Friday is my last day of school and then it's SUMMER BREAK :D WOO) so tomorrow, I'm working on chapter 18 and hopefully finish. Cwohs2 will be updated no later Friday :D about 1,000 more words and I'm done! But anyways, yes, you can hope for chapter 18 tomorrow ;) it might be up early in the day or late at night, or the evening. So yeah :) if not tomorrow, then Friday definitely!<strong>

**I hope you awesome readers enjoyed this chaper ;D Please, please, _pleeasee _review and I will see you hopefully tomorrow :D**

**- Angel ^_***


	18. One Thing after Another

**Author's Notes: This is a very late update (Early Saturday morning - 2:59 a.m.), but I was busy for the past two days and I was so determined to finish this chapter and put it up before I went to sleep, so that is why I'm updating this late xD lol.**

**Thank you all for the reviews last chapter :DD I greatly appreciate them :D**

**Okay, now you may read :) Enjoy~ ;)**

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><p><span>One Thing after Another<span>

And I couldn't go through with it. When Drew said he was heading for the party, I stayed behind. I actually started the enormous project of picking up all the books and magazines scattered three feet deep on the floor of my room. After about an hour and hardly any progress, I realized that by shelving them, I was messing up a filing system I didn't even know I had. Books I wanted to read again were thrown on one side of my bed. Bad books were abandoned by the window. Wakeboarding magazines were strewn from my dresser to my desk in approximate order of how hot boys were in them, and so forth. I gave up and sat downstairs in the family room with my dad for a long time, watching basketball.

My cell phone rang. I pried it from the pocket of my tight miniskirt. I knew girls were supposed to carry purses instead of stuffing everything in their pockets, but I needed to ease into this transition over the coming year. Sirens weren't built in a day, hello? "Hello?"

Gary was on the other end of the line, making chicken noises.

I hung up and said bye to my dad. Again, I didn't notify him what was going on with my many suitors. I figured the situation would change anyway in the next fifteen minutes or so.

Gary stood in the doorway of the Ketchums' house, letting all the air conditioner out into the hot night. Waiting for me. "Where have you been?"

"Duh, I've been next d-"

He grabbed me, pulled me into the foyer, and slammed the door. "Misty and Ash are inside talking. _To each other!_ And I've told everybody here that you and I are together. When you didn't show up, it looked like you didn't love me as much as I love you."

"Stop the presses."

"So we need to make up for lost time." He pushed me against the wall and stuck his tongue in my mouth.

Well, I just let him do it. Why not? I let him slide his hands up and down my sides, too, in case that helped the cause. If he wanted to touch my boobs, I would need to take that under advisement, but otherwise I found I had a very high tolerance for a handsome ass of a boy using me as target practice.

Besides, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Leaf and Giselle watch us from the end of the hall. They disappeared around the corner. Next a couple of guys from my algebra class walked slowly by the opening, pretending not to watch us.

Gary came up for breath. I tried not to gasp quite as hard as I had after bashing my head and nearly drowning.

"How many gawkers is that?" he asked.

"Four," I said. "Is that enough to spread it around the party? And how can you stand to kiss a girl like that when you don't feel anything for her?"

He rubbed the back of my neck like a lover. "I feel _something_ for you. You clean up okay. Do you feel _something _for me?"

I shook my head. "I'm not feeling you, boy."

"Don't shake your head," he said through his teeth. "We're going into the party now. Don't do anything negative. Agree with everything I say. Laugh a lot. Can you put your hands on my crotch?"

"Why, hell no, I cannot," I said. "Can I find May, take her to the bathroom, and giggle about you?"

His eyes widened in admiration. "That would be awesome!"

I was getting good at this. I gave him a peck on his stylishly stubbly cheek, patted his ass, and walked into the living room.

Every head snapped up to watch me.

Including Ash's. There was thirty-something people in the shadowy room, and I saw him right away. He sat on the couch with Misty, exactly where Gary had sat with her the night he insulted me. Ash wasn't wrapped around Misty like Gary had been. He wasn't touching her at all. He was talking to her. They could have been friends.

So they weren't doing anything to make me jealous. All he did was look up at me with such fury in those brown eyes that I knew I was going to throw up.

"Help," I croaked, putting a hand on May's shoulder.

She looked around at me. She looked at the boys she'd been talking with: Paul and Drew. "Can Paul help you?" she asked me coldly. "They're his brothers, so he could help you better. _Drew_ and I were talking."

Hadn't she heard Gary's blitzkrieg rumors? I wasn't pretending to be with Ash to get Gary. Surprise! I was pretending to be with Gary to get Ash, and if ever something was giggle-in-the-bathroom material, this was it. I was calculating how much of this to divulge to her while Paul and Drew were listening, when something else clocked in my brain. "Are you two going out?"

"Yes!" Drew beamed.

May beamed too, then tried to hold the smile as she realized she'd been busted.

"So," I said to May, "when you told me you came to the last party to see me, really you were using that as an excuse to see Drew."

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," May said distantly, a tone she'd never used with me before. The tone Giselle used all the time. "I guess I didn't understand you and I were that close."

"I guess it was my mistake," I said.

"I want to go back to college," Paul said. "Linear Differential Equations class will seem so relaxing after this summer."

Drew frowned at May, then moved toward me as if he would pull me aside and talk to me. I didn't want to mess up this thing up with May for him. Not over some weird girl-jealousy that I didn't even understand completely.

"I gotta do something," I mumbled, pulling the pokeball necklace from my pocket. This took a couple of tries when my fist got stuck.

Across the room, Gary stood with some of his many friends. Down by his side, where the crowd couldn't see, he motioned to me. Misty and her friends were right behind him. If I went to him, he'd make sure they saw everything that counted.

From the couch on the other side of the room, Ash glared at me.

I took a step forward Ash. The force of his glare was like a magnet turned the wrong way against another. I took another step toward him and felt the force in my stomach. I would never be able to reach him in the face of such force. Plus Richawn was trying to start a mosh put in the center of the room. So I skirted the force as if I was headed out the door to the deck. Then, when Ash bit his lip and looked down, I snuck past the repellant force and plopped next to him on the couch.

"Here." I held out the pokeball in my sweaty palm. Attractive! It didn't matter anymore. "Look," I said in a rush, "I didn't crash into the pontoon boat to get to Gary. Even I am not that unbalanced."

His mouth moved so little that I almost thought he used telepathy to tell me, "I don't believe you."

"No shit. And I'm sorry about the PDA with Gary. I don't know what I was thinking, Ash. I want another chance with you, and I _know _that wasn't the way to get it."

"That's okay," he said so brightly, so unlike him, that I knew something evil was coming. "I like Gary having my seconds."

"See, that's the problem," I snapped, angry again despite myself. "You say you love me, but you're always looking over your shoulder for Gary."

"And you're always look over _your_ shoulder for Gary. Or Leaf or Giselle." The Allstar Weekend song booming through the room ended at the precise moment he said, "Or whoever's made you change from what you were into a first-class bitch!"

Only a moment more of silence ticked by before Psycho started. But the damage was done. People at the edge of the crowd were slow to start dancing again. They thought we couldn't hear them over the music as they yelled in clear voices, "Did you hear was Ash called Dawn?"

I told myself he wouldn't have said anything so horrible to me if he wasn't jealous. Of course, I'd told myself the same thing when Gary mentioned the shrink. But Gary was Gary, and Ash was Ash. And while I was trying to use my intimidating brain power to turn myself into water vapor and vanish into thin air, Ash snatched the necklace from my open palm. "I have just the use for this," he said as he stomped out of the door to the dock.

I left my sparkly shoes on the floor next to the couch. I knew that jig was up. But even in my bare feet, I didn't make it outside before Ash was on the ground far below, halfway to the dock. Possibly he'd jumped over the deck railing.

I dashed down the stairs. Gary called to me from the deck above me. I dashed faster. This was no time to save face. I had a terrible feeling about that pokeball necklace.

Sure enough, by the time I'd pushed through the crowd in the yard and the wall of people on the dock, Ash was sitting with the boys playing quarters. I stepped forward to stop him. It was too late. Instead of a quarter, he bounced the pendant on the dock. And instead of ringing the cup, the pokeball slipped between two planks, into the lake.

"Ohhhhhh!" said the other boys.

"Get it," I told Ash.

He said thoughfully, "No."

I pictured it sinking through the water, but it wasn't heavy enough to stay in one place on the bottom. The current would sweep it away if he didn't hurry. "I bought it for you!" I shrieked.

"I wore it for you," he said evenly. "And now I'm through with it."

I shoved back through the wall of people, jumped into Mr. Ketchum's personal fishing boat tied on one side of the dock, and grabbed a big waterproof flashlight. I didn't have to push through the wall of people on my way back because they saw me coming and got out of my way. I walked straight through the game of quarters, scattering frightened boys. I sensed rather than saw Ash's hand reach for my ankle and miss as I hopped into the lake in my adorable clothes.

The water was warm and black. Oops. I clicked the button on the flashlight and directed the beam underneath the pier. The water was only about eight feet deep here, so I was able to kick down to the rocky bottom, where I thought the pendant had fallen through.

In the eerie green light, I saw it glinting on a big branch the boys had lodged under the dock to attrack fish. That was bad enough, because wood got slimy in water. But this was worse: the pendant glinted from its resting place in a GLOB OF BRYOZOA clinging to the branch. Ugh, ugh, ugh, and the pendant moved as the bryozoa bobbed in the current. Any second now, the pokeball would tumble deep into the lake, lost forever.

My breath was gone. I swam toward the surface to collect more breath. I didn't expect half the school to be peering over the side of the dock, watching for me in the darkness. That was okay. I was on a mission to PLUNGE MY HAND INTO THE BRYOZOA OH MY GOD. I took my breath and dove back down-

And someone on the dock grabbed me around the waist. Someone strong who wasn't dislodged from the dock when I struggled. Ash lifted me backward out of the water.

"Let me go!" I hollered, not looking at him, still leaning toward the water and trying to struggle free. The flashlight clattered on the dock. "I saw it. I can still get it. Let me go!"

"You're not supposed to get your stitches wet," he said.

I wanted to point out that he would not know this, since he didn't stick around the emergency room long enough to hear what the doctor had to say. Then I remembered Ash had a lot more experience with stitches than I did.

And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blur, and Ash was gone. An enormous splash backed everyone away from the water. Ash and Gary flailed in the lake.

"Get their parents," I said over my shoulder. If Paul or Drew had been there, they would have stepped forward before now. And Gary's friends and Ash's friends never intervened, like fights between brothers were somehow sacred. I watched Ash and Gary in the water to make sure neither of them went down for too long - though there wasn't much I could have down if they had. Nothing seemed to be happening behind me. The crowd watched the show as attentively as I did. I turned around and screamed, "Go get their parents!" Three people ran up the dock and through the yard.

I jumped out of the way as one of the boys hauled himself up the ladder. He snapped his legs up before the other boy could drag him back into the lake. But then the second boy grabbed the top of the ladder, swung himself onto the dock, and tackled the first.

There didn't seem much point in explaining to Ash that Gary had only attacked him because Gary and I were pretending to be a couple and trying to make Ash jealous. After one of them had hit the other, it didn't really matter why anymore, at least not to them. I bent as close to them as I dared and hollered, "I've already told your parents."

"Gary, stop," came Misty's voice from the crowd, ever-helpful.

I expected them to roll toward me. I'd have to jump out of the way as they wrestled on the dock and caught each other in various choke holds. Instead, the boy on top punched the one on bottom, a pop to the nose. The fight came to an abrupt stop.

The crowd gasped. They murmured, "No, that's Ash on top. _Ash _kicked _Gary's_ ass."

Ash sat on Gary's chest, his right fist clenching and unclenching. I couldn't see his face or Gary's in the dim light, but I could tell from the way they held themselves that they were giving each other the evil eye. And I knew I shouldn't be worried anymore about pulling Gary off Ash, protecting Ash from Gary.

Ash said so quietly I could hardly hear him over the waves lapping against the dock, "Don't you ever hit me again."

The murmurs increaced, and the crowd in the yard began to part. Mr. Ketchum was coming. But it was Mrs. Ketchum who came running in her bathrobe.

"Gary!" she called when she hadn't even hit the dock yet. "Gary, get _off_ him!" As the crowd slowed her down, she said, "You two have _got_ to stop doing this. You're going to kill each other." She made it through the wall of people and stopped short.

"I'm through," Ash said. He eased off Gary and stood up.

Gary sat up, looking down. His nose streamed blood.

Mr. Ketchum said behind us, "Hey. Is that my beer?"

I'd seen enough. I pushed my way through the crowd, up the pier, into the grass. Knots of people followed me with their eyes, turning as I passed. Paul, Drew, and May jogged down from the house. May called to me. I shook my head and kept going. They didn't come toward me. They must have seen the expression on my face.

When I reached the darkest shadows of the trees between our houses, I looked back. Mrs. Ketchum stood in front of Ash in their yard, with her hands on her hips. He shivered in his soaked clothes. She put out her arms for him. He walked into her embrace and put his head down on her shoulder. She rubbed his back to warm him.

Furious as I was with him, I hoped he didn't get in too much trouble - about the beer, and especially about the fight with Gary. I hoped his parents understood this fight was inevitable, with or without Misty and me and _Laguna Beach. _And that tonight was the first night of the rest of his life.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Seriously, when I finished writing this chapter and re-reading it for mistakes, I felt like a lot happened xD Like it was just a lot of drama in this chapter.<strong>

**I have to ask this question: Did your mouth drop when Ash called Dawn a "First-class bitch?" I really forgot I put that so when I read this over and reached that part, I was like ":O" xD Lol. A little harsh for him to say, but he was only speaking his mind ;)**

**Anyways~ pleasee review :D This chapter I am also anxious to get reviews on. So please review :)**

**Uh..I'm going to try and update tomorrow (Sunday), it'll be my last update until my surgery is over x.x but I can work on the last chapter, 20, while I'm in the hospital because I'm allowed to have my laptop :D so really...don't be surprised if you get an email ;) **

**Alright, now I'm sleepy...so I'm gone~**

**- Angel ^_^**


	19. Sixteenth Birthday!

**Author's Notes: Hi Hi readers :DD Thank you all for the lovely reviews last chapter ^_^ They are always~ awesome! I am happy to say this won't be the last update for this story for a while (more information about that at the bottom). As you can see this chapter is relatively short :p nothing really _too _spectacular about this chapter, however it is still important :p SOOO I hope you all enjoy reading ^_^ **

**And sorry if anything is mispelled any words xD I didn't put this on Mircosoft today because I was being lazy xD but I went through this a few times, so hopefully everything is just fine :)**

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><p><span>Sixteenth Birthday!<span>

It was not, however, the first night of the rest of _my_ life. It was night 5,843, and felt like it.

I stepped into the kitchen and closed the door. I dripped all over the floor. Dad freaked out about stuff like this. Someone might slip! I'd have to find a towel in the laundry room and drag it behind me all the way to the family room - unless, of course, he heard me come in and called me to ask me how my night went. Then I'd have an excuse to skip the towel. I could sit in his lap, even though I was soaked. I could break down, and he could tell me what to do about Ash.

He didn't call to me. Maybe he hadn't heard me in my bare feet. I opened and closed some kitchen drawers gratuitously. Still he didn't call to me.

I gave up, got a towel out of the laundry room, and scooted it across the floor with my feet, catching the water that dripped from me. As I headed through the family room to the stairs up to my room, I saw Dad. He'd fallen asleep on the couch in front of the TV, cell phone gripped on his chest. I was on my own.

I walked up the stairs, which took more energy than usual. There were a lot of stairs. Thirteen to be exact:

1. Made

2. You

3. Change

4. From

5. What

6. You

7. Were

8. In

9. To

10. A

11. First

12. Class

13. Bitch

By the time I got to the top, I was pooped, and not furious anymore. Confused and hurt about May. Hurt and sad about Ash.

A long time passed before I realized I was standing in my dark room, listening to the laughter and music from the party outside.

Closing my door behind me, I slid my wet clothes off. Oh God, dead wet cell phone in my skirt pocket. There went my birthday money from my grandparents. I didn't need to turn on the light to find my mother's sweet sixteen disco dress in my closet, because it practically glowed in the dark. I slipped it on and walked to the window.

Gary and Ash lay on that strip of grass between our yards where they liked to fight each other because their mom couldn't see them from their house. Gary and Ash had finally killed each other! No - Ash arms were behind his head. Gary's legs were bent, with one foot propped casually on the opposite knee. They watched the stars, talking.

Talking!

Ash sat up. He wore his sweatshirt with his football number on the back, the one I'd borrowed last weekend. He shook a little like he was shivering again. He stuck his hands in his pockets. He pulled out one hand and looked at it, then looked over his shoulder at my house. He'd found my eyelash comb.

Maybe he saw my dress glowing in the moonlight, because he turned all the way around to stare. Now Gary sat up and turned around, too. Or maybe it was Gary and then Ash. I couldn't tell them apart in the dark. It didn't matter now, anyway. Bwa-ha-ha, I hope I creeped them out.

But _one _of them was Ash. Tingles crept up my arms and across my chest at the thought of him watching me. This would have to stop. Pining after Gary had been bad enough. At least, I'd always thought pining after Gary would have a happy ending. I _knew_ no good would come from pining after Ash. Plus, it was a lot more real to me now, not a cartoon relationship lost but a real boyfriend, a real friend. I choked back a sob as my throat closed up.

I watched him for a little longer. Yes, I could tell him from Gary, even at a distance, even in the dark. The way he moved his head, the way he tapped his fingers on the ground in that fidget I'd fallen in love with. That could have been me instead of Gary, sitting with Ash in the dark. But there wasn't a way to fix this.

Ten years from now, I'd be married to someone I'd met at college. Ash would be married to someone he'd met on the bomb squad. We'd all come home to visit our parents at Thanksgiving. Ash and I would see each other out on the docks. We would feel oblidged to talk for a few minutes and laugh uncomfortably about this one summer that had ruined our friendship forever. And then we'd walk away.

I looked at the clock on my bedside table behind me. 12:02. I closed the window shale, blocking out the party and Gary and Ash. I slipped off the disco dress and folded it into a big box with the scrapbook Mom and I had made to fill in with pictures of my sixteenth birthday. Standing in a chair precariously balanced on books, magazines, and Mr. Wuggles - God only knew what was under there, really - I slid the box onto a shelf in the top of my closer. Where it belonged.

I woke up to Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway."

My body had gotten used to waking at this time. I didn't remember my dreams.

I wouldn't miss them.

But I tried to shake it off. I tried not to wish Ash would show up with a birthday present for me - even though I'd forgotten to get one for _him!_ I would have the usual birthday breakfast with Dad and Drew, just like every year, and then I'd try to get through my first-ever day of avoiding my exbest friend. While I worked at his parents' marina. And he worked there too. Easy.

For breakfast, Dad made me pancakes with blueberries in the shape of smiley faces, because he was a dork. Between the butter and syrup, Drew handed me a long tube-shaped present. Actually it was just a wrapping paper tube with the wrapping paper still on it, and something rolled up inside. Boys were like that. He saw my look and shrugged. "It would have been a waste of perfectly good wrapping paper. This worked."

Still giving him the look, I pulled out the contents of the tube and unrolled a wakeboarding poster. "Dallas Friday!" I exclaimed. "Dallas Friday shattered her femur doing a whirlybird."

"I thought it was perfect for the occasion," Drew said. "Fearless."

Dad cleared his throat and pushed a little box across the table to me. It was beautifully wrapped with an intricate bow that most girls would keep on their bulletin boards. Obviously wrapped in a store. I slipped the bow off intact and tried to unstick the paper without tearing it. It tore by accident and then, what the hell, I ripped it off.

I flipped open the velvet ring box. Inside was a silver ring with pearls and diamonds. It looked real. Was I supposed to bite it to make sure? No, that was gold coins in cowboy movies. It also looked vaguely familiar. "You didn't get this at the store."

"I had them check the settings," Dad said. "They cleaned it and wrapped it for you."

I examined the ring more closely. "It belonged to Mom."

"Her parents gave it to her for her sixteenth birthday."

I looked into his eyes, so full of concern. We had a touching moment. Then of course, Drew dropped his fork and went under the table to hunt for it, and it was hard to keep the touching moment going while Drew sat on my toes. "Ow!" I kicked him.

"When you were younger," Dad said, "I thought you'd never wear it, because it wasn't your style. Lately, I'm not so sure. I thought I should give you the choice."

I freed it from the box and slipped it onto my finger. It was a crazy ring, diamonds glinting in contrast with the smooth pearls. And it was heavy. If I ever got into a fight in a dark alley, I could use it as brass knuckles. Or if I was cornered on a rooftop, I could hook it onto a clothesline and slide to freedom like James Bond. Don't try this at home.

"I'll wear it because it's a part of me," I said. "Thank you, Dad." I walked around the table and hugged him. Then I sat back down, took another bite of pancake, and stared straight ahead at the empty chair.

And I realized for the first time ever that we kept an empty chair at the table. There were three of us. You would think we would have three chairs normally, and bring in a fourth when Ash came to dinner, which clearly wouldn't be happening anymore. It wasn't like the table was square, and a chair missing from the fourth side would be conspicuous. The table was round, and could have three chairs as easily as four or five or eight.

I was swallowing my pancake in order to point this out when Dad said, "I need to tell you something, Drew. I don't want you to see me on the bank during the wakeboarding show and wipe out because of the shock. We've had enough wakeboard falls for one lifetime." He took a sip of his coffee. "I have a date for the Crappie Festival." He took another sip of coffee. "It's Joy."

I sat still, thinking back to that talk I'd had with Joy. She'd said, _You're the only one who comes to visit. Except-_

Drew didn't budge, either. Dad must have taken our non-reaction as disapproval. "I never said anything while she worked here," he hurried on. "I never did anything. We were coping so well, for a grieving family-"

"Except for when you sent me to the shrink," I pointed out.

He continued more loudly, "-and I was terrifed of messing that up." He turned to Drew. "But now you've got a foot or two out the door." He turned to me. "And you're-" He sighed. "Grown. I thought it would be okay now." He took another sip of coffee, nonchalant, but his eyes darted to Drew and me in turn. "Even if it's not okay, I'm still going out with her."

"Does this mean we have to start drinking soy milk again?" I asked Dad.

"I'm glad we've gotten this settled," Dad said. "Drew, what'd you dream about?"

My brother blinked at the change of subject. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?" I grinned.

"She's a real person."

I took this as my cue to head for the marina. Dad would probably coax the dream out of Green - Dad was a lawyer, after all - and I didn't particularly want to hear just then about May beating Drew at wrestling in chocolate pudding.

But he stood when I did. Dad looked up at him and said, "You take care of your sister today."

Drew shrugged. "How?"

Dad looked at me. "And you watch out for those boys.

It was way too early in the morning for a breakdown, so I squeezed my eyes shut to hold back the tears and stepped out the door, calling, "I'm afraid I have nothing to be afraid of."

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Okay :) And that is the end of Chapter 19. Not much? No drama! :D *SMILE* You have no reason not too! <strong>

**Okay, as I was saying at top that this won't be the last update for a while. It won't be because as I've said last chapter I can have my laptop in the hospital 8D But that's not the best part to why it won't be a long wait for an update. Best part is, is that Chapter 20 is almost finished - only maybe like 1,000 more words. And I'll finish that tonight. So hopefully I can update Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest because I know I'll be fine by then :D**

**And Chapter 20, sadly, is the last chapter /: I feel like I've just started this story yesterday but it's been 3 months! It was very fun writing this story :D **

**Which~ is why I want to write a Sequel to this, but~ I want to know how many of you would like the Sequel and how many would actually read it so I won't be wasting my time on it. I know exactly what I want to do with the sequel, yes, of course, there will be more drama - I love writing Drama ;D. In the sequel I have decided to also have Ash's POV incoroporated through the story, which is what a few people have been asking for for this story, along with Dawn's POV. Not sure how well that will go since I find it very hard to write for him x.x but I am definitely giving it a shot and I actually have a very good feeling about it :D And where I plan on leaving this story, I know exactly how I want to pick it up :D So yeah, just tell me in a review or PM if you'd like a sequel ;D I can start and most likely finish the first chapter and put it up while I'm in the hospital.**

**Well, that is all :) Again, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And please review :D**

**- Angel :D**


	20. One Last Plan: Resolution

**Author's Notes: HHHIIIIII everyone! :DDD If you can't tell, than, yes, I am very excited! I am for a few reasons: 1. After a week of being in the hopsital, I'M HOME FINALLY! (I know I'd said I was going to update while I was in the hospital, but I was way~ too out of it to write or anything. I didn't think that'd happen though.) 2. Well, when I got my phone back, Wednesday (I was very, very out of it Monday and Tuesday) I had like 50+ emails. A few were from random sites, stuff I didn't care about and the rest from FF. I was so~ happy because I got loads of messages from you guys, reviews (not only for this story, but also for my others :D), and Author alerts, Favorite Authors, Story Alerts, and Favorite Stories. I was just so happy, it was so many things, I was just overloaded :DD Best way to come from surgery! So, I'd like to thank you guys soooooo much! I could not have made it this far without you all, so thank you so, so, _so_ much! 3. I got plenty of reviews and a few PMs from you guys telling me you want a sequel! :D That made me extremely happy! So there will definitely be a sequel. _And finally_ 4. I'm finally putting up the last chapter :D I really like this chapter and I think you all will too ;D**

**I know that A/N was very long xD lol, so I'll quit talking and let you readers get to reading now :)**

**Enjoy~ the last chapter ^_^**

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><p><span>One Last Plan: Resolution<span>

In the garage, balanced on the handle of the seed spreader, looking out of place between the lawnmower and the tiller, was a long-stemmed pink rose.

Drew passed me. I called, "May left you a gag gift."

He hardly glanced at the rose on his way out the garage door. "Pink isn't my color."

Joy must have left it as a joke for Dad, then. I should take it to the kitchen before it wilted. Almost wishing it were mine, I ran my finger across a soft petal. My hand found a pink ribbon tied around the stem, then a tag hanging from the ribbon. The tag said in Ash's scrawl, "YES, it's for you." I let a little laugh escape even as my eyes filled with tears.

He'd called me a bitch. I wasn't running back to him when he left me one rose. On the other hand, there was no need to stuff it down the garage disposal. Maybe Ash and I could be friends again, after all. Someone. Besides, I adored the scent of roses: perfume and dirt. I put the blossom to my nose and inhaled deeply, grinned, and headed to work.

Another rose lay atop the woodpile.

A third rose was tied to an oak tree with a hangman's noose fashioned from kudzu vine.

A fourth stuck out of a broken brick in the seawall.

A fifth lay across the handles of the doors into the marina. They all smelled so lovely, my blood pressure hardly went up when Mrs. Ketchum shrieked at me, "Where have you been?"

She must have freaked out because the marina was already swamped with customers. The Crappy Festivities today were divided among the town swimming park and the three biggest marinas on this section of the lake, including ours. We got the crowning of the Crappy Queen. I wished we got a more interesting event, such as the Crappy Toss. I could have thrown a dead fish as far up the beach as anybody. The Crappy Queen contest was just a bunch of high school girls parading up and down the wharf as Mr. Ketchum called their names and announced the weights of the biggest fish they'd caught all year, and what bait they'd used. At least the event did its job of bringing customers in.

Well, if Mrs. Ketchum wanted me there sooner, she should have told me the day before. "Where have I been?" I repeated. "I get asked that a lot for some reason."

She took the roses from me without comment and shoved me into the showroom, where a small crowd of people in shorts and flipflops milled between the displays. "It's been a revolving door in here since we opened this morning," she hissed. "People want to buy wakeboards, and they want to buy them from _you."_

"Wow! Really?" I'd feel a little guilty selling people wakeboards, considering my experience two days before. But after all, my wreck was caused by a brain cloud and a broken heart, not equipment failure. I patted my head to make sure my bangs hung over my stitches.

"Yes, really!" Mrs. Ketchum said. "Ash's been covering for you, but he just mumbles at customers."

"Where _is_ As-," I started to ask. Then I saw his broad back, and the door to the warehouse closed behind him. Where he'd stood, a rose protruded from behind a Liquid Force on the wall.

He'd call me a bitch. I wasn't running back to him when he left me six roses. But i did extract the new rose carefully and put it with the others in the vase Mrs. Ketchum set on the counter. Then I found another rolled up in the boat twine, and still another lying across the containers of worms.

In the late morning, as I manned the cash register (after pulling out the rose inside), Dad and Joy came in. My heart pounded when I saw Joy. I wanted to vault over the counter and throw my arms around her. Instead, I ask her in a British accent, "Please, marm, are you to be my new mother?"

"Dawn!" my dad burst out. Flushing red, he realized he desperately needed a new slalom ski _right then,_ and bolted for the display.

Joy watched him go. "Very funny," she told me through her teeth. Then she leaned across the counter, kissed me on the forehead, and gave me a grudging smile. "Happy Birthday."

"Thank you, marm."

She reached for my hand. "What a beautiful ring." She moved my finger back and fourth so the ring glittered under the fluorescent lights, and smiled at me again. "Your mother would be so proud of you."

"What a pretty dress," I said. "Is it hemp?"

Holding her chin high, she said self-righteously, "It's organic cotton." She took a long whiff of the roses. "You and Ash have gotten yourselves in a mess, I hear. 'Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to decieve!' Sir walter Scott."

I patted her hand. "That's nice, dear."

"An honest man's the noblest work of God.' Alexander Pope."

I squinted across the showroom. "I think I have a customer."

My dad recovered and decided he could put off that slalom ski purchase, after all. He came to the counter, put his hand on Joy's back, and asked her, "Is Dawn giving you lip?"

"She's making fun of me!" Joy exclaimed in mock astonishment. "I'm offering her aphorisms and she's making fun of me!"

"They do that." Dad turned to me and said, "We're going to wish Drew luck before the show. Aren't you at least riding in the boat with the boys?"

"Ha! I'd rather go shopping." Snort.

As Joy pushed open the door into the sunshine, she said something in Russian. Something long that she was determined to get out in full. Dad stood in the doorway and waited for her with a look of pure luv while she finished.

I didn't need any sage advice on honesty and I _definitely_ didn't need any form Dostoyevsky. "_Do svidanya,"_ I muttered. Then I realized the customer was approaching the counter. "Yes ma'am, may I help-" It was May.

She slid a candy bar onto the counter. "Hook me up, would you? Now that I have a boyfriend, I'm trying to maintain a girlish figure."

As I scanned the candy into the register, I looked over my shoulder to see whether Mrs. Ketchum was listening from the office. I'd told custmoers off before when Mrs. Ketchum wasn't around, if they really deserved it. May was Drew's girlfriend. I didn't want to be the annoying little sister she dreaded seeing when she came over to our house. But damn, if she was going to follow me around and taunt me! She could have bought a candy bar at a gas station.

She must have seen I was gearing up to tell her off. She knew me better than I'd thought. Either that or she recognized that fixed killer stare I got before I served an ace. For whatever reason, she said in a hurry, "What draws me to Green as a boyfriend is that something that draws me to you as a friend. You're both so honest, to the point of being clueless. After years of being stuck at tennis tournaments with Leaf and Giselle, it's refreshing."

"Eighty-three cent," I said. "You're not helping yourself here."

"And if I wanted honesty, I should have been more honest to myself. When you left the party, I told Green what I did to you. He didn't un-ask me out, but I could tell he was disappointed."

Drew would never un-ask a girl out. Even if he hated her guts, he'd keep his promise and act like a gentleman about it. I didn't tell May this because she was genuinely concerned about what he thought of her now. It was sort of sweet. "If it makes you feel better," I told her, "he dreamed about you last night."

"He did?" Her face glowed in the sunlight streaming through the showroom windows. Then she quirked her eyebrows at me. "He tells you about his dreams?"

I nodded. "Me and Dad, every morning at breakfast. Are you going to pay for that?"

She dug in her pocket, peered at the change in her palm, and picked out some coins. She had the same purse-carrying issues I had. "Anyway,"  
>she said, "I'm sorry for using you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I didn't give it a thought. But I should have."<p>

"Maybe I'd like to be used by a girl." As she passed me the change I said, "I'd like to be good enough friends with a girl that we use each other without asking, and help each other without question. I'd like to know a girl always had my back." I tossed the coins in the register and slammed the drawer shut. The nickles slid into the dime compartment, which would drive Mrs. Ketchum insane.

May nodded. "We'll work on it. So, the wakeboarding show starts soon. You want to go watch it with me?"

"Can't," I said, gesturing to the crowded showroom that was my responsibility. Wait a minute - it was emptied while I wasn't watching.

Mrs. Ketchum popped her head out of the door office. She gazed suspiciously at the cash resgister drawer, as if she just _knew _something was amiss in there. "Dawn, why don't you take a few hours off? You should go outside and watch the boys."

"I don't _want_ to go outside and watch the boys." Actually I did. More than anything. I'd never missed a show before. And I'd never missed Ash so much. But I wanted to watch from the roof or a tree or somewhere else Ash wouldn't see me watching them. He'd call me a bitch. I wasn't running back to him when he left me nine roses.

Mrs. Ketchum folded her arms. "Go outside anyway."

I folded my arms, too. "I don't want to go outside."

"Well, I don't want you to work."

"I want to work."

She pointed at me and screamed like I imagined real mothers did when their daughters turned too much like them. "You're fired!"

"All _right!"_ I threw my cash register key onto the counter and stomped outside.

Then turned right back around, smacked into May, stepped inside, and took the roses Mrs. Ketchum held out to me wrapped in a paper towel. Her lips were pressed together, just like Ash's expression when he was trying not to laugh.

I stalked down the sidewalk outside. May scampered to keep up with me. "Are you really fired?"

"Of course not," I said. "She fires me about once a week in the summers. I guess I'll take the rest of the day off, though. What's all this for?" I slowed to a stop at the edge of the enormous crowd. The air smelling like hamburgers and funnel cakes. People stood or sat together on towels, picnicking. I could hardly see a bare patch of grass grow or wharf, but it wasn't quite time for the wakeboarding show.

"They're crowning the Crappie Queen!" May said.

"If you're going to hang around here, you need to use the correct pronunciation. It's _Crappy_ Queen."

"It's Misty."

Sure enough, down on the wharf, Mr. Ketchum was calling Misty forward as the new Crappy Queen. There was some justice in the world.

And then I changed my mind. Instead of the evening gown I'd seen at Crappy Festivals past, Misty skipped onto the wharf in cutoff jeans pulled over her bathing suit, and bare feet. She grinned while the outgoing Crappy Queen pinned a tiara in the shape of a fish into her hair. Maybe old Misty was all right after all.

"Pardon," Drew said right behind me. He shoved me off the sidewalk. I shoved him back, then realized that when he pushed me, he'd tucked another rose into my bouquet. Walking backward down the hill, he flipped his hair, winked and blew a kiss at May. May giggled and blew him a kiss back.

Another voice behind me said, "A-choo!" SOMETHING FLEW INTO MY BOUQUET. I almost dropped my beautiful roses to avoid further contach with nastiness. But it was only Paul, pretending to sneeze another rose at me.

"Racking up, aren't you?" May asked, and I had to grin.

Right after Paul came Gary. His nose was only a little blue. I could hardly tell it had bled the night before. Gary was like that. And he held a rose between his teeth.

I smirked at him. "Don't tell me. You want me to come and get it."

"Oh no," he said through a mouth full of stem, holding up his hands in warning. "Ash would kill me." He handed me the (spitty, ew) rose. "Did Dad crown Misty the Crappy Queen, yet?"

"Yes," May and I said together.

Gary's face fell. "Oh!" He ran down the sidewalk. At the bottom of the hill, he caught Misty by the arm and talked to her for a few seconds. His face fell further, and she shook her head. He walked away after the other boys, toward the wakeboarding boat. I almost felt sorry for him.

"I'm going to congratulate Misty on her coronation," I said to May.

"You aw?" May said with her mouth full of candy bar. "Uhhh-"

"Come with me, because you're my friend and help me without question. I may need someone to call 911 if she breaks my arm."

"I'w be wight behiwd woo."

I maneuvered down the hill through the crowd, using the roses to clear the way in front of me. Now Misty talked with an elderly couple, which might make her less likely to deck me. "Misty!" I squealed, jumping up and down, spilling petals. "Congratulations!"

She stared at me like a fish out of water, but the elderly couple thanked me in the manner of clueless grandparents, which got us out of that embarrassing little moment.

"I need to tell you a couple of things," I said, hugging the rest of my roses to my chest and putting my other arm around her.

"Come this way," May said, moving along the seawall. Misty looked back to signal the elderly couple to save her, but I moved in, blocking her view. What a team May and I made. Beyond the crowd, May sat on the seawall with her legs hanging over. I did the same, and Misty sat between us.

"It wasn't my idea to enter," Misty spoke up defensively. "I caught a two-pounder, and my grandfather said we could _not_ let the mayor's daughter win again this year with only a one-pounder and a plastic minnow."

Misty rose further in my opinion.

"I didn't need to tell you how bizzare that is," I said. "Obviously you have a sixth sense about these things." I nodded toward Gary cranking the boat and backing it away from the wharf. My brother was in the bow, Paul sat further back, and Ash was bent below the side of the boat, gathering something. "I needed to tell you Gary is really in love with you."

Now_ she_ looked toward the boat puttering across the inlet. "How do you know? You can just tell, right? You can tell by the way he acts? After the last couple of weeks, I'll never be able to trust _that_ again." She tried to sound tough, but her delivery was stilted, and her eyes rolled for emphasis at the wrong place. I'd never actually talked to her before - I'd only watched her from afar - or I would have noticed this. She came off as a lot younger and more unsure of herself than I'd expected. Which made me like her even better.

"I know because he told me," I said. The boat pointed in our direction, almost like it was heading for us rather than the open water. "I also needed to tell you your wakeboard bindings came in at the showroom this morning."

"Ooh, I forgot Gary gave you a wakeboard!" May said. "I wish I could learn."

"It's fun," I said. Maybe Drew could take May out wakeboarding. Maybe Gary could invite Misty again and hope she showed up this time. Of course, both Gary and Drew would have to fight the boys every step of the way. We were good together, but it would be nice to wakeboard with other people once in a while, without a freaking outcry and rumors of mutiny.

"Hey," I said suddenly. "I have a boat." There it was, tied on the side of the dock in front of my house. We hardly ever used it because we were always in the Ketchums' boat. I nudged May. "If you want, come over after I get off work tomorrow, and I'll teach you to wakeboard." I turned to Misty. "You too, Misty Crappy." Of course, they probably didn't have boaters' licenses, which meant I'd have to drive. They'd be learning to wakeboard, so I'd just take them around in slow circles. Surely, I couldn't mess that up. They wouldn't suspect a thing.

"That would be great!" May exclaimed. She touched Misty's bare toes with her toes. "I'll pick you up, Your Crappiness."

In case May got the wrong idea, I warned her. "Green won't be with us. He'll be with the boys. This will be a girl trip."

"I know," she said, as if she _did_ really know and wasn't trying to get out it.

"But we could cruise by the warehouse very slowly like we need to borrow another tow rope," I said. "I have become an expert at seduction."

Misty snorted, then gave up suppressing it and proceeded to laugh her ass off. The Crappy Crown detangled itself from her hair and would have fallen in the lake if I hadn't caught it for her. Finally, she calmed down enough to cough out, "I don't know. I'm not very graceful."

"Who am I," I asked, "Michelle Kwan?"

"Not hardly," May said at the same time Misty said, "I see your point." But neither of them was looking at me. They watched the wakeboarding boat float right in front of us, full of boy.

Specifically, full of Ash. He stood in the bow, one arm cradling a bouquet of roses - a funny contrast, this muscular football player carrying pink flowers. He held his other hand out to me.

Drew leaned over the bow, too, and caught the seawall, holding the boat there so it didn't scrape against the wall and drift away. The boys had planned ahead. For once.

Ninety-nine percent of me leaped up immediately and knocked Ash over, hugging him. One percent was still bitter about the bitch comment, and angry that I'd been tricked into coming out here to wait like some airhead flirt for Ash to happen by. This one percent was heavier than the rest combined and anchored me to the seawall. I elbowed May. "Traitor."

"I was helping you without question," she said.

"And your mom!" I yelled to Ash. "Did you ask your mom to get me out here?"

"I told her to fire you if she had to," he called. "Did she fire you?"

"Mama Ketchum has some feminine wiles!" I exclaimed.

Ash laughed. "She's got maybe one more feminine wile than you, and you've got about three-fourths of a wile." He titled his head and wiggled the fingers of his out-stretched hand. "Come with us. We want you to close the show. Right, Gary?"

"Right!" Gary said with fake enthusiasm. From the back of the boat, Paul waved my wakeboard at me to show me, again, that they'd thought ahead.

"I'm not supposed to get my stitches wet," I reasoned.

"Don't fall," Ash responded right back.

I wanted to go. I couldn't quite detach the heavy one percent. "You called me a bitch. I'm not running back to you when you leave me a dozen roses."

"Four more." He waved his smaller bouquet at me. "Sixteen total. Birthday or what?"

Misty shoved me forward - which, since I was sitting down, didn't push me into the boat. It only folded me over like a movie theater seat.

"You can think about it," Ash said. "The four of us can take our turns, and we'll come back to see if you've changed your mind. But I want you to come with us now." In a singsong voice, he coaxed, "I'll let you drive."

Drew and Paul stared at Ash, eyes wide with fear. Gary coughed, "Bullshit."

"I'll let you drive when _I'm_ wakeboarding, anyway," Ash said.

"It's love," Drew said, motioning with his head for me to get in the boat. "Let May hold your roses so they don't go bald in the wind."

Drew's blessing was the final push I needed. I held out my arms for the extra roses from Ash and inhaled one last long sniff before handing off the whole huge bouquet to May. Then I took Ash's hand and let him help me in. Drew shoved the bow away from the seawall and walked into the back of the boat, muttering, "Freaking femme fatale."

As we puttered out of the idle zone, I gave Misty and May a pageant wave. They waved back and clapped for me. The boat reached the open water and sped up. The motor and music drowned out the clapping. Ash grabbed my waving hand, and we did the secret handshake.

As we sank to the bow seat, I touched his pokeball pendant on a new chain. "They still have these in the bubblegum machine?"

"Gary went under the dock and found it for me."

I nodded. "He was the best choice to rescue it for you. He has no fear of bryozoa." Squinting into the sun behind Ash, I looked up into his eyes. "One day on the boat when we were kids, did you tell me you wanted me to be your girlfriend when we were old enough?"

He slid his hand down a lock of my hair and twisted it around his fingers. "I don't remember saying that, but I wouldn't be surprised. I wasn't lying that day in the truck. I really have loved you forever. Why else would I wear a necklace you bought me from a bubblegum machine? It turned my skin green."

"It didn't." To make sure, I moved the pendant aside and peered at his chest, which looked like the normal scrumptious tan to me. "It didn't," I repeated with more confidence.

"It did when you first gave it to me. Any metal coating that might have been clinging to it wore off on my chest years ago."

Come to think of it, the pendant _was _a funny color not found in nature. I'd probably given him lead poisoning, which was why he acted like that. I ran my fingers around the pokeball, and poked the small circle in the middle which was supposed to be the button. "You know, you could have told me you loved me a long time ago, before things got so crazy."

"No, I couldn't. I like to take chances. I'd blow a chance on anything but you. You didn't love _me."_

Didn't I? It was hard to believe I'd called him _little dolphin_ just two weeks before. "I didn't think about you that way. Clearly I was capable of it, because I love you now."

He grinned and took my hand. "We should add another step to the secret handshake."

"Then we couldn't do it in public." I turned his hand over and ran my fingertip lightly over his palm until he shivered. "When Gary came up to your mom because a fish had mouthed his toes, and my mom said I should just wait until I was sixteen...that wasn't Gary. That was you, wasn't it?"

He put his head close to mine, watching my finger trace valentines on his open hand. "I didn't want you to like me because you thought you were supposed to. I wanted you to like me for me." His breathing sounded funny. He was about to cry - which was going to cause him a world of trouble with the boys. He could live the first time down owing to the shock of seeing me crash into a very large, very stationary object. But if he cried again, he was toast.

I knew one way to stop him. I hollered over the motor, "Oh my God, Ash, are you about to _cry?"_

"Oh my god!" Gary echoed in a highpitched girl-voice.

Paul squealed, "Ash, don't cry!"

My brother called, "No crying in the boat."

Ash laughed with tears in his eyes and kissed me softly on the forehead, the side away from the stitches. And suddenly, to my complete horror, _I_ was the one crying, sobbing into his chest. I was happy, but that wasn't why I was crying. I was relieved. Relieved of a weight I couldn't even name.

He held me more tightly and kissed my forehead several more times, then made his way down my cheek, dangerously close to my ear. I giggled at the same time I cried. If he didn't stop, he was going to give me hiccups - which would be incredibly sexy, on top of messing up my timing for wakeboarding jumps.

He kissed my lips. "What do you want to do tonight?" he whispered.

What a question!

"Put our names back on the bridge," I said. "Only, you hold the sailboat this time, and I'll take care of the handwriting." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, enjoying the warmth of Ash's arms around me against the wind. We sat back and watched the other boats and the crowded banks of the lake spin by. When the show started, we spotted for the other boys while they took their turns.

Then it was Ash's turn and mine.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: *Sigh* And that is the end...^_^ Well, not much to say now except, again, Thank you all soo much! I'm really happy you guys read and enjoyed my story. I really could not have finished this story without you. I finished this <em>for<em> you. And now I'm going to write a sequel _for_ you! :) Thank you all, again! ^_^ **

**Well, obviously this is the last chapter so can I get _everyone _that keeps up with this story to review please? I know~ it's way more people that read than review this because 34 of you have this story on alert. So why not drop a sweet little review for the last chapter? ^_^ Plus, I want to get as close to 200 reviews (or I'd like to xD) as I can for this story, so I'll need some help from you all, of course :D So please, please review this last chapter :D I'd really appreciate it.**

**Okay, whoever plans on reading the sequel and you don't already have me on Author Alert, than put me up there because I will be posting the first chapter in a couple of days ^_^ **

**Thaaaannkkk Yoouuuu, again, so much for reading! :DD I love you all! You're amazing!**

**- Angel :D**


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